Michael Gove’s plans to encourage local authorities to sell off assets (Ministers plan to push cash-strapped English councils to sell assets, 30 January) mean that his levelling up department should more accurately be called levelling down. Every time this government reaches the depths of killing off local government, it discovers a further way of demonstrating its philistinism and its control obsession. Most of a council’s assets are its inheritance from history, when there were councillors of stature who invested in their towns and cities with pride. Instead, the Conservatives now seek to hide their massive cuts in central grants to local authorities to cope with their responsibilities under government legislation, plus draconian restrictions on local spending, by encouraging “one off” sales of councils’ own assets.
The high point of local government was in 1948, when cities, such as my own Leeds council, controlled gas, electricity, water, transport, schools, further education, some higher education, a hospital, and much social security. Since then, governments of both parties have, bit by bit, centralised these powers, and local councillors have allowed it to happen, mainly because they preferred to back their own party in government than to defend local democracy. It needs a united front by all local authorities to stand up to central government.
Michael Meadowcroft
Former MP, Leeds West; honorary alderman, City of Leeds
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