All proper democracies have two tiers, central and local. They are equally vital, but in England the second tier is all but dead. Local democracy has been crippled by Whitehall since Margaret Thatcher’s rate-capping in the 1980s and councils became cash-strapped agencies of central government. There are now fewer councillors in Britain than there are local councils in France.
This week the Labour government has laid out its plan to remove the last real discretion local people have enjoyed: the freedom to order the environs of where they and their families live. Participation in planning is to be stifled following a sustained barrage of abuse from Keir Starmer and his housing minister, Angela Rayner. They have dismissed people exercising their democratic rights as nimbys, reactionaries, blockers, bureaucrats, declinists and newt-lovers.
