By Dan Corry, Gerry Stoker, Warren Hatter, Ian Parker and Anna Randle.Since ‘New Localism’ entered UK policy debates, civil servants and politicians have been quick to reveal their decentralising rhetoric. The authors argue that the complexity of modern society demands a governance system that is neither old or new municipalism nor the new fad on the block, silo-based democracy. New Localism is not a fancy code word for devolving down service delivery areas to local managers, creating new democratic single issue boards around them and so cutting local government out of the picture in a wanton creation of silo accountability. Nor is it a code for devolving down everything to the Town Hall, stopping it there and having no other form of participative democratic body at local level.

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Managers in central and local government are overworked, they put business ahead of family, and they work within a negative culture, according to a study by the Chartered Management Institute and Adecco.”The Business Energy Survey” questioned more than 1,500 managers across and found businesses were failing to understand their needs. As a result workplace energy was dropping dangerously low. The study, conducted in May 2004, assessed the attitudes, motivations and aspirations of managers.

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The local democracy think tank the Local Government Information Unit wants council house tenants – and their local authority landlords – to have more choice over the regeneration and building of social housing. The demand is set out in a new pamphlet, “The Right to Choose” which argues that current government policy restricts the choice available to the six million people living in council housing and to councils by offering funding for only three options of transferring homes from councils.At the moment the options are a switch to a non-local authority registered social landlords, establishing an Arm’s Length Management Organisation or a Private Finance Initiative. The LGIU says that by denying those who reject these three options the chance of investment, the government will fail to meet its objective of Decent Homes by 2010.

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