The majority of those hearing Andy Burnham’s enthusiasm for devolution will probably not be familiar with the names John Poulson, T. Dan Smith and George Pottinger, yet these played a significant role in the story behind it. In 1974 they and others were jailed for corruption, having for years bribed their way into lucrative, state-funded design and construction contracts. Their malign influence reached even the Home Secretary, two other MPs, senior civil servants and some 23 local authorities.
The impact of this scandal was long-lasting.
The Poulson affair put the case for devolution back decades. Although implicating members of the national governments, both Conservative and Labour, it particularly cast a shadow over the reputation of local authorities, encouraging the Thatcher government and its successors to take back to Whitehall ever more control over budgets previously delegated to councils.
Budgets were constrained
Devolved powers to set rates or to borrow were removed. Local Authorities budgets were constrained such that services were increasingly contracted out rather than undertaken in-house. Today Local Authorities principally implement national policies rather than responding to their community particularities.
This distances decisions made about public services from those who most need or experience them. The gulf in understanding between communities and Whitehall apparent today has roots in this history.
The scandal led to the Register of Members Financial Interests in 1974 and eventual creation of the Committee on Standards in Public life, which have provided some safeguards against the buying of influence.
The 1973 Royal Commission on the Constitution pointed out: “[candidates] may enter public life with little preparation and may find themselves handling matters of financial scale quite beyond their experience in private life.”
Insufficient councillors with integrity
The argument has been repeatedly used against devolution that sufficient councillors with integrity would be impossible to find. It is ironic to cite national figures in this context after the reputational mud thrown at local councillors after the Poulson revelations but until the Covid cronyism under PM Johnson and Peter Murrell’s private enterprise in Scotland, public life has indeed been much freer from corruption.
The concerns expressed by the Commission should certainly apply to the hundreds of MPs arriving in Westminster after a General Election, who form the recruitment pool for ministerial appointments; and to the “expenses” support offered to MPs by lobby groups.
Thanks to the Blair government, devolution of the nations comprising the United Kingdom was introduced and has been popular and effective in the main. City mayoralties have so far proved relatively, if not totally, free of charges of cronyism, while illustrating regional differences in resources, need, culture, geography and history.
The move to more unitary authorities may allow the best of those committed to public service in each region to be selected. The PM will have to assure himself and us that new devolved authorities will achieve and sustain acceptable standards not only of competence but also of integrity.
The egregious examples of Messrs Johnson and Murrell must be a warning against neglect of these criteria, while Reform’s leadership has shown itself open to sources of funding which have raised eyebrows and concerns as to motive.
Devolved tax-raising and spending will present engagement for many more elected members and unelected officials in large-scale contracts, which may tempt some to stray. As has been the case with Parliament, hundreds of humans having positions of influence will undoubtedly lead to some taking advantage, no matter what the rules say.
Ethics and Integrity Commission
Merely accepting candidature of party supporters in new authorities as a criterion for appointments will not suffice with so much at stake. Lobbying, expenses abuse, favours will be done. New legislation is introducing a mandatory Code of Conduct under the aegis of an Ethics and Integrity Commission.
With or without out a Regulator, this will lack teeth, these having proved weak and ineffective in the cases of Ofwat, CQC and others. More safeguards are needed to ensure ongoing fitness for office across all of the public sector.
Perhaps the best assurance should lie not with a bureaucrat but in the electoral system. Proportional Representation not only offers voices for all significant parties’ viewpoints but also brings more diverse scrutiny into Council Chambers to guard against chumocracy, which can be so egregious.
There will always be bad apples but they are generally a tiny proportion of a crop. These can and must be weeded out, preferably before damage is done. Perhaps the Poulson case should act as a reminder not to wait nor to allow just one dominant party to decide on its own standards. If society is diverse and local, so its leadership should be.
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