Local Government II – How Local Government Works

From finances to leadership (or lack of). I’ll start with a TL;DR graphic, then go into more detail later on.

Councillors

You can’t have a council without councillors and as of the 2022 local elections, we have 1,233 in Wales – roughly one county councillor for every 2,500 people. Each councillor represents a ward, with the number of councillors in each ward and their boundaries determined by the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales.

Much like elected politicians higher up the ladder, the role of the councillor includes:

• Representing the interests of their ward/constituents in full council and committee meetings.
• Processing and submitting requests from members of the public for action by the council (casework/referrals).
• Engaging with the local press (where it exists) on local issues.
• Taking part in scrutiny committees (more on this shortly) to hold the council to account.
• If a member of a political party, campaigning for that party during national elections.

While the role is considered to be part-time, councillors have an unofficial commitment to be publicly available 24/7.

Unitary authority councillors are paid an annual allowance of £16,800 (as of 2022-23) and are eligible for certain expenses relating to travel and care responsibilities.

The unitary authorities are chaired by a Mayor (assisted by a Deputy Mayor) who is usually elected for a one-year term. Mayors and deputy mayors are paid a higher basic salary, making it a prized position. Councillors who are leaders of opposition groups receive a higher basic salary too.

The Leader & Cabinet

The Cabinet system was introduced in the Local Government Act 2000. Before the Act, political decision-making in local government was undertaken by cross-party executive committees.

After the Act, the executive decision-making power was entrusted to a Leader and Cabinet (sometimes called an Executive Board/Executive Committee) selected from the council as a whole – whether from the largest single party/group or as part of a coalition.

The Council Leader is the political head of the council and is elected at the council’s Annual General Meeting. They usually come from the party with the most councillors or a coalition with the most councillors between them. The Leader appoints councillors to Cabinet positions (including a Deputy Leader), with each one being politically accountable for a council department or policy area.

The Leader and Cabinet Members are responsible for the council’s work programme, drafting the budget and decision-making. If they were elected on a particular manifesto, it’s their responsibility to ensure those pledges are delivered.

There are some decisions – planning applications and licence applications, for example – which are made by committees rather than the Cabinet. Annual budgets and council tax levels have to be approved by the council as a whole too.

Council Leaders and Cabinet Members are considered full-time positions and, as such, they’re paid a full-time salary inclusive of their councillor allowance. Depending on the size of the council and the seniority of their position, salaries for Cabinet Members range from £32-63,000-per-year.

Council Officers

Council officers act as the civil service for local government. They run the day-to-day operations of the council. They’re politically answerable to the Leader and Cabinet Members and are held accountable by councillors as a whole and the council’s scrutiny committees.

Officers offer impartial and politically neutral advice/recommendations to Cabinet Members, committees and individual councillors. Although decision-making authority is supposed to lie with the Cabinet – or with committees in the case of planning and licensing – in practice councillors rarely disagree with officer recommendations to which they are legally required “to have due regard”.

Some decisions – known as “delegated powers” – may be made by officers on the council’s behalf. These powers are included in a council’s scheme of delegation and include things like the power to issue on-the-spot fines, sign low-value contracts and issue public notices.

Critics may argue that this has reduced the role of councillors role to nothing more than using a rubber stamp (Part III).

Certain officer positions are legally required and are called statutory officers/statutory chief officers:

• Head of Paid Service (aka. Chief Executive) – The head of the council’s administration and responsible for organising staff as well as ensuring the council’s day-to-day operations are carried out effectively.
• Section 151 Officer (Finance Officer) – Responsible for the good management of the council’s finances, including preparing budgets, monitoring things like borrowing and reserves and making recommendations on things such as council tax rates and fees. They have to be a chartered accountant.
• Monitoring Officer (usually the Head of Legal Services) – The council’s chief legal officer and counsel. They’re responsible for ensuring a council upholds its Constitution, monitoring the conduct of elected members and ensuring decisions made by the council are lawful. As such, they’re usually a qualified and suitably experienced solicitor, barrister or legal executive (see also: A Welsh Justice System II – The Legal Profession in Wales).
• Head of Democratic Services – Responsible for matters relating to the political make-up of councils (i.e. assigning committee seats), taking minutes of meetings and overseeing the voting process at council meetings.

Other key non-statutory positions that most councils have (though the titles may be different) include:

• Returning Officer – Responsible for overseeing elections and election counts; almost always the council’s Chief Executive.
• Head of Development Control/Chief Planning Officer – Acts as head of the local planning authority, so oversees strategic/local development plans and the process of determining planning applications. Planning officers are almost always members of the Royal Institute of Town Planning.
• Department managers – Chief officers in charge of a particular council department. Although the titles may be different from council to council they’ll include the Director of Education, Director of Social Services, Director of Children’s Services etc.

Despite the principle that officers should be politically neutral, as of 2021 officers in Wales – except the most senior/statutory ones – are allowed to stand in elections to the authority they’re employed by, on the expectation that they’ll resign from their post if elected.

Committees

As mentioned earlier, before the introduction of the Cabinet system most political decisions were made by executive committees. Since then, the role of the committee in local government has been primarily focused on scrutinising the Cabinet and council officers.

Committees are made up of councillors who are not members of the Cabinet. They’re supposed to reflect the number of seats each party/group has on the council.

Each Committee appoints a Chair to run meetings who in turn receive a higher allowance – though the Chairs of committees with decision-making powers, like planning/development control, usually receive more. As a result, committee chairs are often fairly powerful and sought-after positions.

Some committees are required to be established by law (each council is required to have a Standards Committee, for example), while other committees are set up to scrutinise a particular policy area or council department.

The role of the committees and their members is to provide detailed scrutiny of decisions proposed or taken by Cabinet Members and/or officers. This is to ensure the council is being well-run, isn’t taking any unnecessary risks (financial or otherwise) and is acting in the best interests of residents.

Committees have the power to “call-in” decisions made by the Cabinet or officers if they believe those decisions require additional scrutiny. This could be because, for example, a decision was made without enough information being provided – read a recent example in Bridgend at Oggy Bloggy Ogwr.

There are certain other committees outside the council that councillors may be appointed to. These include Fire Authorities, Police & Crime Panels, National Parks Authorities (where applicable), certain health and social service-related boards and – as of 2021 – Corporate Joint Committees. These appointments usually come with additional pay and expenses.