Archived press release

Councils to Government: We Have Green Will, Now Give Us the Powers

23 November 1998

Central Government is avoiding responsibility for action on the environment by placing duties on local Councils without the powers to achieve them, a new report from Friends of the Earth warns today. The result is a "green gap" between national rhetoric on sustainable development and what happens in practice.

FOE's report "Barriers to Sustainability" [1] is published on the day that officials from the Department of Environment, Transport, and the Regions (DETR) meet the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Local Government Management Board (LGMB)to discuss the future of Local Agenda 21, which aims to deliver local sustainable development.

Speaking at the New York Earth Summit in 1997, Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "I want all local authorities in the UK to adopt Local Agenda 21 strategies by the year 2000". While over 80% of local authorities have started to draw up such strategies, there are still few examples of action plans being put into practice [2].

The report, written for FOE by influential environment consultants CAG, used confidential interviews with key staff in National and Local Government, NGOs, quangos and academics to find out why limited progress has been made on Mr Blair's target. A lack of political will and commitment to sustainable development at national Government level was identified as a key factor.

For most local Government officers interviewed, the lack of key powers for local Councils was identified as a major obstacle to progress. The need for greater control over local taxation - for example the power to impose a parking tax on non-residential vehicles - is a key issue. Although a parking tax was a key proposal in the recent Transport White Paper,
it has been widely reported that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and the DETR have lost the battle with No10 and the Treasury to get a Bill introducing the plan included in the next Queen's Speech.

FOE wants national Government and local Councils to sign up to four key principles if the Local Agenda 21 process is to achieve its goal:

1. National Government must bring in green tax reform, and move away from GDP as a principal economic indicator to an alternative measure of national well being. Joint research by FOE, Forum for the Future and Cambridge Econometrics shows that an eco-tax reform package could create up to four hundred thousand new jobs by 2010
2.National Government should make local sustainable development an over-riding statutory duty for local government and other devolved bodies such as Regional Development Agencies [3]
3.National Government must communicate and promote the sustainability message through creative and effective advertising
4.Chief Executives should report regularly to their Councils on the effect on sustainability of Council policy and practice.

One senior academic remarked: "Generally, the framework of law and regulation is not at the local level. Therefore the question shouldn't be 'why is local action failing' but 'why did we ever think it might work?'. A senior Council officer added that "In theory, local Government should be leading the show because we are the only democratic element at local level, but in reality our sphere of influence is small because of external pressures such as globalisation." Respondents also pointed to "short-term thinking" and "fear of negative electoral response to change" by both local and national politicians.

Commenting, Tricia Allen, Local Campaigner with Friends of the Earth said:
"Local sustainable development is still a fledgling idea, not yet supported by genuine political commitment. National Government has demanded that Councils get on with Local Agenda 21, but hasn't given them the powers they need to achieve it. We need clear political will from the Prime Minister downwards if we are ever to bridge the green gap between environmental rhetoric and the frequently grim reality."

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] Perceptions of National Barriers to Local Sustainability was researched by CAG Consultants. Copies are available. For information - 020 7490 1555.

[2] On 14 January 1998 John Prescott addressed a full conference of Chief Executives to relaunch the Local Agenda 21 process in the UK. At this conference he launched a new Guidance Document, 'Sustainable Local Communities for the 21st Century - Why and how to prepare an effective Local Agenda 21 Strategy'. This was aimed to help local authorities meet the target set by Tony Blair at the New York Earth Summit in 1997, at which he said "I want all local authorities in the UK to adopt Local Agenda 21 strategies by the year 2000".

[3] The New Duty to promote Economic, Social and Environmental Well-being is contained in the White Paper'Modern Local Government'. It states that "This new duty will provide an overarching framework for local government. It will enshrine in law the role of the council as the elected leader of their local community with a responsibility for the well-being and sustainable development of its area. It will ensure the councils must, at all times consider the long-term well-being of their area. It will put sustainable development at the heart of council decision-making and will provide an overall framework within which councils must perform all their existing functions. So, in taking decisions affecting their area or its people, councils will have to weigh up the likely effects of a decision against the three objectives - economic, social and environmental - and if necessary strike a balance to ensure that the overall well-being of their area is achieved."

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust