Written evidence to be reported to the House
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
9:35 am
Peter Facey: We are not arguing that everything needs to be put down to the local level; we are saying that the current balance is wrong. The Government agree that certain things are being directed from central Government or central Government agencies that can be better decided locally, because the local council and the local community have more expertise in relation to their own problems, and are therefore better able to work out what the priorities should be. We are not saying that everything has to be shifted downwards, but that the balance is wrong and we would like to see a better definition of it.
It may be that the Minister and central Government will ring-fence certain things as national more than I would like, but even if the Government were extremely conservative about what was national, we think that there would be significant benefits if some things were definitely local. The balance would shift.