Member News
By Declan Pang - 5th October 2010
ePolitix.com reports from a Localis fringe in which communities minister Greg Clark called for a more localised and community-based approach to government.
Communities and local government minister, Greg Clark spoke of the importance of localism in a world where politics was becoming increasingly personal. Clark also spoke of the vital role of volunteers and the need for community engagement.
He said that the public often felt defeated by centralist and overly bureaucratic systems and often saw their MP or local councillor as the only person they could personally interact with to sort out problems they had encountered with government.
Clark then went on to say that he had never seen such a high degree of personal conflict than in planning applications.
He emphasised the need for politicians to engage with people personally, deep within their communities to create wholesale change in the way politics was conducted.
He said that directives and guidance that had come out of government were not addressing people's needs in the individualised way in which they needed to be.
He stressed the need for government to be 'turned upside-down', saying that only central government would be able to repeal the laws passed in order to make change happen and that government departments had to work together to achieve a change in culture.
Clark stated that over a short period of time, he wanted the whole of his department to be refocused on a localist agenda.
Earlier, Alex Thomson of Localis had opened the meeting by highlighting the 'Total Neighbourhood' report his organisation had produced.
Thomson explained that Localis research was based on 3 main principles: that decisions should be made by those most closely affected by them; that services should be delivered effectively; and that people should be given a greater choice of services and the means to influence the ways in which they are delivered.
Mike Whitby, the leader of Birmingham City Council, began by highlighting the important role played by faith organisations in the voluntary sector. Whitby said that people of faith understood giving and volunteering in a way that secularists did not.
Whitby expressed his view of localism as focusing on people's satisfaction with service delivery in their communities. He said that the satisfaction levels amongst communities in Birmingham were 87 per cent since the council had embarked on its localist agenda.
He said that localism was at the heart of the notion of a big society and that effective communities were based on a triangulation of public money, politicians and the public working together closely.
Whitby emphasised the importance of focusing resources and public money on preventing problems rather than fixing them. He said that 96% of the NHS budget was spent on caring for patients who were ill, while only 4 per cent was spent on early intervention.
Whitby concluded by emphasising the importance of getting local businesses involved in communities in order to support the community activities that people wanted. He said that Birmingham firmly welcomed the big society both philosophically and politically.
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