1 / 11

Decentralisation and Centralisation: Contradictory or Complementary

Decentralisation and Centralisation: Contradictory or Complementary. Colin Mair, Chief Executive, Improvement Service. Scope. The simple narrative Complications Directions of travel. The Simple Narrative: Looking Out. Very small number of very large councils

ros
Download Presentation

Decentralisation and Centralisation: Contradictory or Complementary

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Decentralisation and Centralisation: Contradictory or Complementary Colin Mair, Chief Executive, Improvement Service

  2. Scope The simple narrative Complications Directions of travel

  3. The Simple Narrative: Looking Out Very small number of very large councils Lowest ratio of councillors and councils to population in Europe Limited fiscal and constitutional empowerment Low voter turnout: limited confidence

  4. Some Comparisons Norway: 19 counties and 434 municipalities (4,676,305) Denmark: 98 municipalities and 5 ‘regions’ (5,515,575) Finland: 20 ‘regions’ and 342 municipalities (5,255,068)

  5. The Simple Narrative: Looking Back Scotland 1974: 203 councils; diverse rather than uniform; 50% local taxation Scotland 1996: 32 councils; uniformity of functions and empowerments; under 20% local taxation Loss of major functions: public health; community health care; college sector; police and fire services

  6. So…. Centralisation across 50 years: whole system Loss of “localness” and closeness to communities Systematic intergenerational inequalities: highly local Reversing the trend: spatial; fiscal; cultural

  7. But…. “Competencies” and “delegations”: rights, standards and decentralisation Financial pressures: economies of scale and skill (note: fiscal powers = fiscal returns) Outcomes and inequalities: national and local roles; culture and values

  8. Government Finance and Demand 2009/10 – 2017/18 (% real terms) NB. Projected cash cuts from 2016/17 – 2018/19

  9. But…. “Competencies” and “delegations”: rights, standards and decentralisation Financial pressures: economies of scale and skill (note: fiscal powers = fiscal returns) Outcomes and inequalities: national and local roles; culture and values

  10. Challenges Form of decentralisation that enhances and does not limit rights Intelligent aggregation/centralisation: protecting capacity and productivity to deliver to communities Managing national and local contributions to outcomes: “community up”; “community in the round” “What matters is what works”: Differential decentralisation

  11. End Points “This could happen just now” but…. Political and executive culture….letting go Empowerment and subsidiarity: “community up” but…. Beyond purely territorial focus: identity and interests

More Related