The article discusses the complexities and challenges in restructuring English local government, which has developed a confusing patchwork system over time. The government intends to simplify this system alongside promoting devolution, allowing regions to have more local power. However, the current framework is inconsistent, with different tiers of local government handling varying responsibilities based on devolution agreements. This creates potential conflicts where local councils could veto essential changes, complicating the reform process, especially related to housing policies that are impacted by these overlapping government changes.
No one designing a system for delivering public services in a modern democracy would come up with something that looks like English local government.
Local government reorganisation and the push for devolution are related projects that mostly complement each other. But there are tensions.
Collection
[
|
...
]