Labour's proposals

[Spartacus]

Interesting to see the proposals bring unveiled today by Labour.

They include a reform of the house of Lords and more devolved powers. Proposals also include more revenue raising powers for local government and 50,000 civil service jobs being moved out of London.

A few things strike me

One. 50,000 staff members will be expensive to relocate, if indeed they want to move and if they don't that's a lot of knowledge and skill lost. With the current working practices, more people are working remotely so again they may not want to do a long commute on their days in the office.

Two. Devolving power, whilst allowing local decisions to be made, adds layers of bureaucracy which in turn adds costs which means services cost more.

Three. The concept of more revenue raising smacks of local taxes which means the government can say they haven't raised taxes but we all end up paying more.

The plans to reform the House of Lords sounds like it will echo the American system, and if so can we expect to see one house blocking the other if opposing parties have their political members in power ?

Will these ideas being presented work or will they add to the problems?

[malumbu]

Good to see something more definite rather than just sitting back and waiting for Tories to fail.

They've been moving civil servants out of the SE for getting on for 50 years - in particular processing applications, benefit etc. Just feels a bit of a popularist announcement.

More of a struggle for those closer to ministers - previous governments of both colours have promised to do this, some failed dramatically, a good review up to the last Labour government https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN02588/SN02588.pdf

Ultimately I expect decisions will be pragmatic - who has to be close to Westminister/Whitehall, (some staff have been moved out to Croydon which didn't count as London in earlier programmes) and particularly with the shrinking of the central London estate, which was happening before Covid, how much function can be done away from SW1.

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

Two. Devolving power, whilst allowing local decisions to be made, adds layers of bureaucracy which in turn adds costs which means services cost more.

I'm not convinced by your cost assertions tbh but I'm surprised that Labour is proposing more devolution - as it's never been particularly popular with English voters...

[OutOfFocus]

House of Lords. I have mixed feelings. Current structure has crossbenchers (ex civil servants, academics...) who give a broader critique of legislation.

Devolution risk of more postcode lotteries like we see in NHS. Policy different in Lambeth and Southwark despite now being same ICS (was CCG).

[Chick]

House of Lords, why not have it elected on proportional representation basis?