EGF undertook detailed research of the governance system in 10 peer countries in order to establish how decentralisation works in other economically advanced countries. The summary report can be found here.

It shows how the UK is by far the most centralised large democratic country in the world. In particular:

· UK local councils are more remote from and therefore less accountable to voters They are over 20 times larger than those in any of our peer countries.

· The UK’s tiers of government have far fewer financial powers, both in how they raise their funds and in how they spend it. Financial control remains in Whitehall.

· Local government in the UK has far less control over the delivery of public services in their area.

· In contrast to the UK, the peer countries studied have a uniform structure where bodies in the same tier have the same responsibilities and powers.

This huge over-centralisation in the UK has wretched consequences, including voter apathy, the overload on around 25 Ministers, the inability to harness the energy, creativity and local knowledge of thousands of councillors, poor public services, poor productivity and the failure to meet the many grave challenges that face the UK.

In contrast, decentralised countries:

· tend to have lower taxes and spending, and better public services properly adjusted to local needs

· are richer, grow faster and score better across almost all metrics of wellbeing.

· have a higher quality of governance when local services are matched to citizen preferences.

Those who support the current arrangements in the UK need to answer a simple question: why, if other comparable countries do so much better with a decentralised approach, do we maintain the myth that the men and women – for all their best efforts – in Whitehall know best?

Read our report on Decentralisation HERE

We know that government isn’t working – and that it doesn’t really matter which party is in office

By Tim Knox

EGF Editor

Recent polling from Savanta – here – shows that most people in the UK realise that government is not working and that public services are poor:

• Only 21% trust national politicians to keep the promises they make and only 22% trust them to tell the truth.

• 63% believe that taxpayers do not get good value for money from the public services.

• 47% are not confident that national politicians are able to meet the challenges that face the UK. Only 21% are confident that they can.

People also recognise that giving more control to their local communities would work for them:

• 62% want more power devolved to a local level, away from Westminster. Only 10% disagree.

• 56% want a greater proportion of their taxes raised by and for their local community instead of by central government. Only 14% disagree.

• 63% want elements of health and social care to be devolved to a more local level. Only 11% disagree.

This level of disillusion with government means that most people think it doesn’t matter who is in power:

• 58% think that the management of public services such as schools and hospitals does not improve regardless of which party is in power.

The above findings come from a Savanta poll of 2,275 UK adults aged 18+ online between 31 March and 2 April 2023. Data were weighed to be representative of the UK by age, sex, region and social grad