A Labour government would invite local councils to have a say in decisions made at Whitehall, according to Local Government Secretary Andrew Gwynne.

Speaking to the Birmingham Post, he said councils would be expected to help deliver large parts of Labour’s general election manifesto, including building half a million homes and reviving Sure Start, the service for parents that has been largely dismantled under the Tories.

In return, they would receive not just a major increase in funding but also a say in policy.

Mr Gwynne said: “We’re embedding local government in the decisions that central government are going to be taking, because they will be facilitating a very big chunk of Labour’s manifesto for changing this country for the better.”

At the heart of this new deal between central and local government would be a “Local Government Commission”, involving council leaders from across the country and chaired by the Local Government Secretary,  the position Mr Gwynne expects to be appointed to if Labour wins the next election.

It would meet monthly and other Cabinet ministers would also attend on an ad hoc basis.

This could mean that Mr Gwynne, and other Labour ministers, were working alongside Conservative politicians. A majority of councils in the UK are currently Tory-controlled, and the Conservatives have more councillors than any other party.

Andrew Gwynne

Things could change, of course, as local elections take place. And the regional mayors, most of whom are currently Labour politicians, would also be involved.

But Mr Gwynne’s proposals could see a Labour government and Conservative-led councils working together to rebuild a system of local government which has been shattered by years of spending cuts.

Would Tory councillors co-operate? Speaking at Westminster, Mr Gwynne said he didn’t think this would be a problem.

“What we have seen from council leaders of all political persuasions over the last nine years, but especially now, nine years into austerity, is just the sheer desire for a government that they can work with.

“And I would hope the next Labour government will be that government, irrespective of who is in control of town or county halls.

“What we are offering is a real, substantial uplift in both the resources available to local councils, but also the powers, the freedoms and flexibilities.”

Labour would need strong local councils in order to deliver on its manifesto commitments, he said.

“We recognise that we can’t do what we want to do on our own. We have to be able to work with local government to deliver on housing, social care, childrens services, transport and a whole variety of other things.

“I speak to Tory council leaders and they just want to be able to get on and do their job as much as their Labour colleagues.

"They want to be able to work with a government that will work alongside them. That’s exactly what this Commission is about.”

Birmingham City Council house on Victoria Square

The Local Government Commission would be designed to ensure councils are involved in decision-making at Whitehall, rather than simply being handed orders from London, he said.

And he admitted that previous Labour governments as well as Conservative administrations at Westminster had been guilty of failing to listen to local councils.

“The important thing is that we are in dialogue with local government, because over a long period of time - and it’s not just this current government, it’s been all governments of all political persuasions -  we’ve had this top-down approach that we’ve got this great idea in Westminster and Whitehall knows best, and we just then drop it on council leaders’ desks.

“What I’m proposing is about getting it right from the start, and you can do that if you engage with local government from the start.”

It would mean Cabinet Ministers making regular appearances at Commission meetings. For example, the Education Secretary would attend to discuss Labour’s plans for a “national education service” while the Minister responsible for social care would discuss Labour’s plans for care services.

And this consultation would take place before legislation enacting Government policy was passed through Parliament.

“We need to liaise and work with local government to get those policies right, to get any legislation that’s going through this place [the House of Commons] right, so that they can hit the ground running and get on and deliver.”

Spending cuts have hit some local authorities harder than others, but in some parts of the country services would need to be rebuilt almost from scratch, according to Mr Gwynne.

He highlights Sure Start as an example. Sure Start centres, providing services for parents, were opened across the country under the last Labour government, but the scheme has been hit hard by recent cuts.

Demonstrators protest over cuts in care for disabled people and cuts to social care services outside Birmingham Council House

Labour plans to bring it back, at a cost of £500m, but councils will be expected to turn the plan into reality.

“In some parts of the country that will be really easy to achieve because those councils haven’t had to close their Sure Start centres or they have facilities that closed but could be re-opened.

“In other places, councils have sold off their Sure Start centres, so we will have to start from scratch.

“So that’s why you can’t have this centrally imposed diktat from ministers in a future Labour government.

“Unless we engage with local government from the very start of that process, it’s all going to unravel very quickly.

“So it’s a really important two way process to make local government feel properly involved in some really big ambitious programmes that we want to deliver, and we want local government to deliver on behalf of the country.”