Devolution and the shrinking of the state

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/may/13/devolution-shrinking-state-england-council

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The Core Cities UK Cabinet and the clergy, ministers and religious leaders whose letters you published (Letters, 12 May) should read Council Tax Support: the continuing story, from the Local Government Association. It calls on the new government to fully fund council tax support, acknowledging that the scheme costs the councils millions of pounds and has increased the cost of living for some of the poorest. It estimates councils will have lost £1bn over the three years to April 2015/16 when they dumped the whole of the 10% cut in central government funding of council tax benefit on benefit claimants by taxing their poverty incomes in work and unemployment. Over 3 million late and non-payers are still being summoned to the magistrates courts in England and Wales every year, adding court costs while threatening the bailiffs and prison to residents who cannot pay the tax.Rev Paul NicolsonTaxpayers Against Poverty

• The individually distinguished Core Cities UK Cabinet members are making one bad mistake on devolution. Devolution should not be confined to cities or ad hoc combinations of them. The last time local government in England was considered in depth was by the royal commission that reported in 1969. The commission concluded that local authorities in England should deal with functions that required this in nine provinces, including Greater London. It would be for the local authorities within each provincial area to appoint their representatives on the provincial council. No separate elections would be required.

This idea reflected two important truths: that devolution should apply to the whole of England, not just to parts of it, and that a provincial council, with a leader it appoints and can replace, would be a well-tried and democratically effective way of reaching decisions. This was before separately elected mayors became popular in some quarters so the royal commission did not suggest them. The commission would have been aware that what can become essentially one-person leadership would be particularly unsuitable in rural areas; as it still would be.Peter NewsamEx-secretary to the now defunct Association of County Councils

• Before we all get excited about the rightness and benefits of devolution, it might be as well to think hard about what the Tory version is likely to be. Their project is all about shrinking the state and devolving blame, so their aim will be to hive off all the poorer areas of the UK and to cut them off from any claim to central funding. Granting tax-raising powers and “autonomy” sounds very nice, but if the regions in question – parts of the north, the south-west, Wales and even Scotland – do not have the tax base or resources to support their policies then the poorer parts of the UK can only get poorer. And central government can deny all responsibility. By the same token, it seems naive to expect the Tories to continue the Barnett formula which provides increased funding for Scotland.Margaret PellingOxford