One of the things that concerns me the most as a politician is the sense of alientation of individuals and communities about important decisions that affect them. I am a firm believer in representative democracy, and I acknowledge that people do not necessarily want to be constantly consulted about every decision. However I think we as a country, over a very long time, have drifted to the point that a large number of people feel totally disconnected from politics and politicians and how decisions are made about their communities. I also believe that there is an important role for the community in the development and delivery of the services they receive.

These issues are not confined to New Zealand of course. In the UK there have been some very interesting developments at a local level to encourage much greater participation by communities. The latest of these is a proposal to make the Lambeth Council in London a ‘John Lewis Council’. John Lewis was businessman in the early 20th century who developed a business model based on a co-operative approach and profit sharing with employees.

In Lambeth they are looking at a co-operative council with residents helping to runs services, and the possibility of financial involvement further down the line. Some of the key initiatives being considered are

- An “active citizens’ dividend” offering a council tax rebate to those involved in community organisations or mutuals that take responsibility for services.
- Allowing service users and local residents to vote on turning local services such as local primary schools, Sure Start centres and youth clubs into citizen-led mutuals.
- Offering tenants more control of their housing estates by setting them up as co-operatives.
- Setting up “micro-mutuals” for people to use their personalised budgets for care service users.

It will be interesting to see how this develops. The approach is not without its pitfalls, and the capacity of local communities to take on decision making and delivery roles needs to be handled with care. The Labour led Council is keen to differentiate what they are doing from the Tory run Council in Barnet, that has been dubbed, the EasyCouncil because they are using the model of budget airlines, whereby they offer a basic service, with additional services on offer for purchase. The Leader of the Labour Council puts it this way

But while Barnet have come up with a plan to pare back what services they offer, we don’t want to. Instead we’re looking at a different settlement that will move the boundaries of who does what, getting users involved in putting together the services they want. Mutual and co-operative values will be our compass. We’ll give the voters a clear choice – cuts if you vote Tory but with us, not only fewer cuts, but also positive side- effects around community cohesion.”

I think it is entirely possible to have a level of devolution of control and decision making without it being about an ideological crusade about smaller government and cutting services. I will be watching closely to see how this develops.