Question: The Conservatives have been the largest grouping in the LGA since July - what difference has this made in recent months?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: That is probably for other people to decide. The Conservatives are the largest party but we are an organisation that represents the whole of local government, and I don't like to see the LGA in party political terms.

The LGA is pursuing a clear agenda which we set out in September, called our manifesto, which sets out to the government what we think the challenges are. That has a consensus that is supported across the political divide.

Question: How hard is that to achieve?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: Our major issues at the moment come to the improvement of services, how we strengthen local democracy, and there is very strong cross-party support [for that].

Different groups hold different views but our main focus is on government and the political parties setting out a manifesto for them to respond to in their own manifestos.

Question: Is the collaboration achieved in the LGA achievable in parliament too, or is there something specific to local government issues that helps produce more of a consensus?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: The LGA is an organisation which represents local government as a whole.

Local government is made up of around 400 councils and if you're asking my view on whether it is better for those councils to have a single party in control, the answer is yes.

In my experience hung councils don't work as well as councils that have clear vision and control one way or the other.

I think the LGA's job is quite different - we are not running services, we are not representing an area of the UK. The government, on the other hand, has direct responsibilities like the councils, and therefore, if you want my opinion, I would say government is best when not hung.

Question: Looking ahead to the general election campaign, what are the big issues for the LGA?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: The LGA starts with the core issues for the country which have changed through the last century. The country has been been very concerned about a number of immediate issues such as two world wars, depression, recession and industrial decline, and then during the 1980s we introduced reform of our economy both in the UK and in the US. We have a largely strong economy and we have been able to turn our attention to the issues of quality of life, and therefore public services moved up the political agenda. 

The challenge now is to give good public services and to recognise that despite a 50 per cent increase in national taxation, there hasn't been in all cases a 50 per cent increase in improvement.

If you take health as an example, a 30 per cent real increase in funding for the health service and, according to the OECD, a four per cent increase in output. So something has gone wrong in the UK in the use of public money and most commentators agree the UK is quite unique in the degree of central control it exerts over public services.

We run an extraordinarily centralised system of governance. And therefore the central challenge if we want to improve public services is to decentralise it. The centralisation is quite unique in the UK, and that has just wasted public money. 

At the same time it has sapped the energy, innovation and commitment of frontline staff who run public services.

But it has also denied local choice, because you have government priorities with local priorities, and it has eroded democracy.

So centralisation has done great harm, and the central thrust of the LGA across parties is for decentralisation and for new localism to become a reality, not just talk and debate.

Question: Do voters need convincing councils can be trusted to deliver services?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: Polls published recently show that 75 per cent of voters think that local councils are much better to run services than either government or companies, so the public are convinced about that.

Other surveys have asked people who they thought were more relevant to their lives, Westminster or the local council, and twice as many people thought the local council.

So the public do recognise increasingly that the local council should be involved, but nonetheless we need to do more to improve and to tell what is a very good story, so people are aware of the improvements that have taken place.

Question: What is the role of government in a more devolved and decentralised system?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: One of the first points that the LGA makes in its manifesto is that government must decide which are the very few aspects of public services which require national standards.

Most people agree that on some issues - possibly some aspects of education, possibly some aspects of social care - there should be some form of national standards, but very few people can understand why swimming pools, leisure services, the libraries need to be the same across England.

If you go somewhere like the US, the federal government has very little role.

Question: One big issue in recent years for local government has been the council tax – are more rises likely?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: Government has listened to the public about this issue. The facts are that government took an extraordinary decision to raise taxation by 50 per cent, and then it decided not to put any of that on income tax.

That was a very unusual decision, the tradition of this country was to increase taxation through income tax. That may have been because the government thought that doing it through indirect tax - stealth taxes and council tax - was less noticeable.

But people do notice, and what we saw for three or four years was government instructing councillors to spend at two or three times the inflation rate but only giving councils increases in grants that were much less than that.

So council tax was forced up and we saw one-year council tax increases on average over 10 per cent. The Audit Commission quite rightly then decided to do a report and, as we saw in the national newspapers, that report made very clear that the lack of government grant had been directly responsible for increases in council tax.

Therefore this was a very real issue: it is very important to local councils that council tax is brought down.

Question: What would you like to see in the Lyons report on local government finance?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: There are two issues. One is that if the government wants to instruct local government to increase spending by twice the rate of inflation, it must cover it with grants.

There's an entirely separate point which is about the balance of local government funding which needs to be addressed.

The LGA's view on that is entirely clear - we accept that this is a decision which only government can take and are taking part in the Lyons review, putting forward a combination of options.

We have said we are relaxed about this and we'd be happy for almost any option to go forward. We have suggested the business rate, reformed property tax, local income tax, any form of local taxation. So we suggested a number of things, but our absolute priority is that the government must make its mind up.

We will be very disappointed at the end of that final review if there isn't a clear indication from government of what they plan to do.

Sir Michael Lyons, I think, will address the issue. We now have a commitment from government and the major political parties that in the Queen's speech next year they will support early legislation - long before we get to the issues of the revaluation which will come in 2007.

Question: Do you think the idea of the Liberal Democrats for a local income tax could be a vote winner?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: It is the one which the minister's report to the House of Commons looked at the least favourably and I don't think anyone could work out the rather unusual claims that it will cost people less. No-one could really follow that argument.

There seems to be quite higher costs but the minister made it very clear in the House of Commons in July that it was, as far as we are concerned, one of the least favoured options.

Question: But you agree that council tax is very unpopular on the doorstep?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: That's why we are so concerned, because as I said, the government has forced council tax up.

All of us want something new and the Audit Commission clearly reported that council grant hasn't been able to match the expenditure plans put out by the government.

So we all know something is going to happen but the question is what, and I think most people seem to be coalescing around the view that some form of moving business rate funding to councils would be a sensible way forward.

Question: Your own party, the Conservatives, is calling for big efficiency savings in local government. Does that conflict with your role in the LGA as a defender of local councils?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: I don't see why it should conflict. The Conservative savings, the James savings, as regards local government, are less than the Gershon report's current savings. The Gershon report calls for £6.4 billion savings on local authorities, while David James is about £4.2 billion. So perhaps with my LGA hat on I should be rather more enthusiastic about the James savings.

Question: Don't the people sometimes described as "faceless bureaucrats" play an important role in inspecting and auditing the work of local councils?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: You could apply that to Gershon as well as James. I think the point is that what we've seen is a huge increase in spending on the civil service in the last few years and quite rightly Gershon, and to a somewhat lesser extent James, are wanting to see what they call value for the the taxpayer.

The Conservative Party believes in a smaller state and Gershon points out that the cost of people in Whitehall looking at regulation, looking at financial billing systems, is about £3.5 billion.

What the LGA argues is that we don't need the regulation. They don't have them in other countries, so why have them here?

So I think most people across the political divide do think that the size of the state in this country has increased far too much. David James goes a bit further than Gershon, but it is certainly rather surprising that one or two Labour ministers who have been rude about David James have been enthusiastic about Gershon.

Question: Is local government as over-bureaucratic as central government?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: Gershon has found twice the potential for savings within central government as he did in local government.

When he looked at the overall position in personnel, property, finance [he identified] exactly twice the potential for saving, and that's a clear recommendation.

Question: What role do directly elected mayors have, particularly in reinvigorating local democracy?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: It should be up to the local authority. It has worked well in the US, but we can't transfer everything from over there to over here. 

I think the government is right to look at that as one of the options, but it's up to the local council. One of the things the LGA has been asking for is far greater discretion in the structures that the local councils wants to set up in political terms.

Question: Has Ken Livingstone been an inspiration for extending the use of mayors?

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart: I'm not sure that Ken Livingstone is an inspiration. Rudolph Giuliani might be on many people's lists, and maybe one or two other people. But the system does work well in a number of places, so we we will see.