Opposition leader Ed Miliband has reacted to the Government's Local Growth Fund spending spree this week by pledging to reverse a "century of centralisation" by giving authorities a bigger role in services.
Local authorities would oversee police services, further education, local schools and part of the health service under a Labour Government, Mr Miliband has announced.
It follows decades in which authorities have seen their powers reduced, and schools leaving their control.
Sir Albert Bore, the Labour leader of Birmingham City Council has welcomed the proposals, which would see authorities set up independent spending watchdogs in return for increased powers and funding.
Under the proposals, local authorities, medical professionals and patient representative groups will take responsibility for keeping elderly and vulnerable people out of hospital by running health and social care programmes.
Mr Miliband said: "The next government can make big reforms without big spending. By reversing the centralisation of power we will empower those who are best able to use the resources we have and have shown they can deliver."
Under Labour plans, councils will take responsibility for equipping young people with the skills they need to succeed by managing further education for 19 to 24 year olds as well as a new service for under-21s looking for work. They would have a say in the appointment of local police commanders and council leaders will sit on policing boards which will replace police commissioners.
Councils, health services, education services, police and other local bodies would form partnerships to help families in poverty or struggling in other ways, with a share of a £1.5 billion nation budget.
Local authorities would appoint a directors of school standards to scrutinise schools, draw up a long-term strategic plan for education in each area and intervene where schools are failing.
But Sir Albert said he wanted assurances new school commissioners would be part of local authority structures. He said: "To have local directors of school standards who monitor, support and challenge schools to improve, that’s fine but it’s a question of where those local directors of school standards sit. Do they sit within the local authority or do they sit beyond the local authority.
"So there's an issue there I would perhaps like to think through. And given our experiences in Birmingham at the moment, that's an agenda we are particularly focused on."
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