Keir Hardie and Local Government

The challenges councils face in Scotland and the UK are rarely out of the news. The funding for Scottish local government has been disproportionately cut, and one in four English councils may seek a bankruptcy bailout in the next two years. While the Scottish Parliament has brought democracy closer to Scotland, it hasn’t created the promised local democracy for our communities. Instead, we still have some of the largest basic council units in the world, and public services have been centralised.

Although Kier Hardie is best known as an MP (twice), he was primarily a localist. He argued strongly for communities to have the power to provide for everyone. In 1910, he wrote a pamphlet, ‘The Common Good’ and a draft bill, ‘The Local Authorities Enabling Act’. This Bill had three main provisions:
•    Local autonomy (based on German municipalities) that could do anything a company can do.
•    Borrowing powers and economic intervention. With the caveat that no profits could be used to reduce the rates.
•    Cooperation with other councils. We should remember that as late as 1973, there were 400 councils in Scotland, compared to the current 32.

He said: “That is the principle of my Bill: to confer upon municipalities the largest powers and wide discretion and to enable them to exercise these, not without but with the minimum of supervision or interference. The matter is one primarily for the working class. It is in particular essential to the wellbeing of the wage-earner that he, in his corporate capacity as a citizen, should own and control the sources of supply from which he draws food, raiment, fuel and shelter.”

In his book ‘From Serfdom to Socialism’ Hardie devoted a chapter to municipal socialism. He was influenced by Liberal city leaders such as Joseph Chamberlain in Birmingham, who had brought utilities like water and gas into municipal ownership. Even in the USA, municipal ownership has survived to the present day. In 1912, there were 70 socialist mayors in the USA.

Hardie’s municipal socialism was focused on the ills of his day. Ours are not that different, with inequality at the heart of most of our ills. Developing municipal energy, strengthening Community Wealth Building, taking social care from the profiteers, and funding municipal bus companies would be a modern version of Keir Hardie’s vision for local government. 

We should look to the local for action. The centre should set the frameworks – communities should decide. Keir Hardie would approve.

Dave Watson