LOCAL government "is in a particularly weak position" compared with that of other countries, according to the interim report of the Devolution Commission. But its principal recommendation for redressing the balance - to devolve housing functions - has not been accepted by the Government.
The commission, set up a year "ago, said it believed that "all housing related activities" should be handed over.
Although the commission itself conceded that this "would not be a major step" in devolution terms, it said it "would be an important one in terms of addressing the organisational issues that are certain to arise as part of any substantial devolution of functions to local authorities".
But the Government said it was asking the commission to "consider further the organisational and staffing implications" of this recommendation "in particular, because a significant part of this work has already been decentralised".
And while the commission was asked to "accelerate its analysis of additional functions which might be transferred to local authorities", it was to take "due account of the need not to unnecessarily disrupt existing arrangements for decentralisation of functions of Government to provincial towns".
In other words, because so many civil servants have been "decentralised" - while remaining firmly part of the central government apparatus - this has now become an additional impediment to any programme aimed at devolving power.
The Government said the revolution Commission was being asked for proposals for the devolution of "functions and powers" by the end of this year, but it was "to make appropriate distinction between functions which involve no local discretion and powers which do involve local discretion".
The statement added that central Government Departments were being requested "to review their operations and to consider specifically Government policy to devolve additional functions to local authorities and to involve them meaningfully with policy and administration of functions not devolved".
In its report, the commission said it believed that the possibilities for devolution "must extend across the whole range of public services" on the basis that local authorities were "genuinely multi purpose bodies, with relationships of various kinds with a wide range of Government Departments".
It said a devolution programme should not result in local government being given a series of "miscellaneous or unrelated functions", but should have a "completeness" which would promote the "widest possible role" for local authorities.
One of the most important recommendations accepted by the Government, is that the existing local government system and the plethora of centrally directed development bodies operating in each area should be "brought together and simplified".
A recommendation with potentially far reaching implications is that integrated multi purpose development plans "should form the basis of the local government system, both in the discharge of its own functions and as a framework for all public bodies delivering services within each county".
According to the commission, these plans - which would replace the existing, largely aspirational county development plans - "should cover . . . all aspects of development - economic, physical, environmental, social and cultural" - and should he based on "wide consultation" with everyone involved.
It would also appear that the drafting of such plans will have to start immediately, as the Government statement says an "integrated local government and local development system will come into place" on January 1st, 2000, once the current EU funded National Development Plan is completed.
