Michael Heseltine’s attitude to local government, in office and since, was a welcome contrast to his ministerial colleagues who succeeded him. He valued the contribution of local authorities to economic regeneration and was committed to a form of devolution.
In his article offering advice to Angela Rayner, there is much worthy of consideration (I’ve spent a lifetime working to level up Britain. Angela Rayner, here is my advice, 9 July). But there is one proposal she should certainly not follow: the abolition of over 200 councils to address his claim that the current structure is “incompatible with a coherent, properly led, local partnership with [central] government”. In other words, local government must be reorganised to suit the centre, not local communities.
