Council Decision-making

What are the two groups involved in running local government?

• Councillors- AKA members, the elected politicians, policy makers who represent their electors

• Officers- the appointed full-time officials, salaried advisers, apolitical

What are the roles of councillors?

• political: public service and social change

• representative: of electorate in their ward/ area

• executive: collective responsibility/ accountability

What are the qualifications to be able to stand as a candidate at a local government election?

• British, Commonwealth, Irish or other EU state citizen

• Properly nominated, 18 or over

• Elector in area OR owner/resident/worker in area for preceding 12 months

• not disqualified (bankrupt, recent criminal convictions, electoral fraudster etc)

What are the different type of allowances councillors can get?

All councillors must get basic allowance: flat-rate £8,000-£16,000+ per year depending on size of the council.

Other allowances include:

• Special responsibility allowance – for senior councillors, ie leader, members of the cabinet

• Childcare or dependants allowance – for councillors who pay for carers when they attend meetings of the council

• Subsistence and travel allowances for meetings outside local authority area

What is an independent remuneration panel?

Each LA must set up an independent remuneration panel (IRP) of a minimum of three non-councillors to recommend basic allowance payable to each member.

Councillors must “pay regard” to the recommendations but don’t have to accept them.

At the end of year, council must publish a list stating how much has been paid to each member. Must be available for public inspection and usually available online.

Describe the declarations of interest

Councillors must, within 28 days of election, declare information about interests that might affect their work (e.g. share ownership, business interests etc)

Failure to declare = criminal offence

What are the two types of interests?

• Prejudicial Interests: “An interest which would be reasonably regarded as being so significant that it is likely to prejudice the councillor’s judgement.” The councillor MUST declare the interest, leave meeting if the matter is being discussed and not take part in the discussion or vote on the matter

• Personal Interest: “An interest that is registered but is unlikely to prejudice the councillor’s judgement.” The councillor MUST declare the interest but may remain in the meeting, speak and vote

How do councils implement a code of conduct?

• national code of conduct abolished by Localism Act

Councils may voluntarily adopt a code of conduct and establish a local standards committee. Anybody may report a councillor to the local standards committee for breaching the code of conduct.

What is a local standards committee?

Made up of councillors and some non-councillors to:

• oversee ethical issues

• give advice and guidance on the code and its implementation

• decide what action to take if a member has broken the code

Who are council officers?

• Full-time, paid staff – servants of the authority – appointed by councillors

• Senior officers can command sizeable salaries, some over £200,000

• Cuts in local govt funding meant significant job losses among officers, with some LAs having to share senior staff

What is the role of senior officers?

• politically sensitive but neutral, they are meant to offer factual, honest advice

• Advise councillors on procedure and policy in cabinet, committee meetings, full council

• Prepare reports for cabinet members and councillors with recommendations

• Reports available prior to meetings. Journalists may use these to prepare stories, interview councillors, officers and public on issues raised and possible consequences

• Responsible for the day-to-day running of their departments

Summary: Officers appointed to administer/ implement policy

Who are the key personnel in a LA?

• Council leader – After election, each political party elects a group leader

  • Largest party’s leader becomes council leader, leader appoints cabinet

• Cabinet (Executive)

  • Max 10 members – each with a portfolio (e.g. education)

  • Cabinet draws up budget and makes decisions on council business

  • Cabinet members accountable to Overview and Scrutiny Committee – made up of non-cabinet councillors.

• Chief executive/Head of the Paid Service –

  • Council’s senior officer. The role is a co-ordinating one, like the CEO of a business, heading up the council’s senior management team.

  • Expected to be politically neutral (‘restricted’), may act as returning officer at elections.

  • Principal adviser to the council on the formulation and implementation of policy

• Monitoring Officer

  • Mandatory statutory post often held by head of legal dept – advises on code of conduct

  • Must report to council on contravention of law, code of conduct or maladministration

• Treasurer o Statutory post – heads financial dept. –responsible for ensuring council operates proper financial controls. Reports to chief exec + district auditor

• Head of children’s services

  • Statutory post – under Children Act 2004 every upper-tier local authority must appoint a director of children’s services and lead member for children’s services.

• Ceremonial mayor/Lord Mayor

  • Honour – recognition for long service. Elected by councillors for one-year term

  • Ceremonial – non-party political

What was the Local Government Act 2000?

Labour introduced new system to make local government more transparent, efficient, accountable by concentrating decision-making powers with a small executive and delegated powers. Vast majority of councils opted for leader + cabinet option, with only around 12 currently pursuing the directly elected mayor option.

Most local authorities required to move away from traditional committee-style to:

 1. Leader and Cabinet – Leader chosen by councillors. Cabinet chosen by leader OR cllrs

2. Directly elected Mayor (DEM) and cabinet – Mayor voted in, cabinet chosen by mayor

What are the pros and cons to the Act?

• faster decision making by limiting the ability of committees to delay final policy votes

• process is now less democratically accountable/ also less clear

• decentralised power- can be hard to control

• efficiency- small groups more efficient

• informal atmosphere- less confrontational

Describe elected mayors

• serve four year term using first-past-the-post

• mayor is main policy decision-maker

• appoints cabinet from separately elected council

Idea is to:

• raises profile of area

• promote public interest in local government

• combat voter apathy

• Introduce people from outside mainstream politics into local government

• improve accountability by making people aware of who makes decisions

• Speed up decision-making process

What are the concerns of directly elected mayors?

• success of joke candidates might bring process into disrepute

• scope for corruption/ scandals is greater

• unhealthy to invest one individual with so much power

• Relatively few councils have adopted system – many voters rejected it. Labour in 2025 announced plans to prevent councils from adopting the system in the future.

What is executive-style decision making?

Where a small group of select councillors have delegated powers for making all but key decisions.

What is committee-style decision making?

A traditional style of decision-making involving committees of councillors from all parties on the council that recommend or decide policy ahead of a full-council meeting where there may be further debate and a vote.

What are the two models of executive-style decision making?

DIRECTLY ELECTED MAYOR AND CABINET MODEL:

• elected by the local electorate in a separate election

  • 4 year term

• cabinet chosen by mayor from separately elected council

• mayor hold the executive power

• can make decisions independently of their cabinet, which makes them more directly accountable

LEADER AND CABINET MODEL:

• decisions will be made by the executive

• full council elects leader who appoints and chairs cabinet

• the leader (usually of the ruling elected party) is not directly accountable to the electorate

• Each cabinet/executive member has a portfolio of responsibility.

• Key decisions made in public

Describe the leader and cabinet system

• Executive leader elected from within council members + cabinet appointed by leader

• Leader normally leader of majority party

• Cabinet up to 10 councillors, normally of majority party, with specific portfolios (eg transport)

• Most decisions are taken by the executive (or individual cabinet members) – held to account by the rest of the council

• Some decisions – eg agreeing the budget – must be taken by full council

What are the pros and cons of a leader and cabinet system?

PROS

• More efficient- simple committee system

• attracts younger, higher calibre councillors

• transparent- Small number of identifiable decision makers

• accountable- Individual cabinet members answerable for decisions

• Non-exec councillors can spend more time working for constituents

CONS

• Secretive – Important decisions can made in secret, though mostly public

• Divisive – Small groups making decision – those with non-exec powers feel sidelined

• Ineffective scrutiny – Decisions without input or opinion of local community

• Checks and balances are insufficient and flawed – Majority party may have majority on scrutiny committee as well

• Remote decision-making – esp. in large counties with numerous district councils, cabinet members will not have personal knowledge of whole county

What are the pros and cons of executive systems?

· Clear, visible leadership (residents know who is in charge).

· Faster decisions (fewer committees can speed things up).

· Direct accountability (especially where there is a directly elected mayor).

· Possible drawback: less involvement of backbench councillors (councillors not in the Cabinet may feel excluded).

· Possible drawback: power concentrated in a small group (some people see this as less democratic than broader committee decision-making).

Describe scrutiny committees

• Scrutiny committees are made up of cross-party backbench councillors which examine the decisions made by the cabinet.

• They can "call-in" decisions for further examination and refer them back to executive or the full council for more discussion

• Can propose changes to policy decisions, but they do not have the power to amend or overturn them

• They also have the power to investigate new areas of policy.

What are key decisions made by the scrutiny committee?

• Decisions that have significant effect on budget or impact a certain proportion of electorate + have significant effects on communities in an area comprising 2+ wards or electoral divisions

• must be discussed and voted on in public

• councils must produce an open forward plan of key decisions looking four months ahead

BUT:

• councils decide themselves whether decisions involve significant expenditure

• Councils able to set diff thresholds for different services

• Urgent key decisions can be taken at short notice