New Localism - Labour's First Term Approach

Labour's First Term Approach

New localism arose from the experience of Labour's first term of office (1997–2001), during which the government's policy approach was characterised as being highly centralised and only partly effective. The most emblematic of its policies were the centrally-driven literacy and numeracy hours in schools.

Labour also introduced new and more complex forms of performance management in an attempt to drive up the standard of local public services through inspection and target setting.

In Whitehall, this was achieved through public service agreements between departments and the Treasury, setting out what was expected of a particular department in return for its funding.

In the wider public sector, local government was required to undertake a heavy service review and inspection programme known as Best Value, while the NHS got a new Commission for Healthcare Inspection and a system of 'star rating' based league tables.

However, these policies were rapidly seen to be too bureaucratic. Indeed, they could sometimes have perverse consequences as public service organisations changed their priorities to meet centrally set targets. One example of this is arguably the way the government's focus on education and social services drove councils to focus their spending and effort in these areas.

While positive in itself, the result was that local environmental services were relatively less well resourced, despite the fact that they are key determinants of public satisfaction with local government. The result was that councils were seen to be improving rapidly by Whitehall, but not by the public, whose satisfaction with local government declined.

New localism emerged from an increasing understanding of the limitations of centrally-driven policy implementation. It involved an acceptance that local problems could not be solved by standardised approaches imposed from above, and that local agencies needed space to adapt and innovate within the policy framework.