Bernard Jenkin has set out a new Conservative philosophy for restoring power to local government.

In a keynote speech, the shadow secretary of state for the regions said that the era of trying to equalise service provision across the country had failed.

He told a New Local Government Network seminar that the Tories now had to find the will to carry through the new vision.

Jenkin admitted that "eighteen years of Conservative government not only failed to halt many aspects of centralisation, but unwittingly accelerated it".

But the problem had worsened under Labour, he said.

Strong feelings

Examining the roots of recent centralisation of power, Jenkin said that anger about unfairness prompted "peculiarly strong feelings amongst the English".

"However, the result is that the whole of English politics has been dragged into the cycle of centralisation," he said.

"The rebirth of local accountability should allow a rapid scaling down of the unnecessary and counterproductive top-down bureaucracy that has built up over the years. 

"Social entrepreneurs should have the freedom to first manage, and then assume ownership of, under-used public sector assets such as community halls, parks or vacant land. 

"Local people should be able to take direct control of those facilities or public spaces that affect their daily quality of life."

Greater devolution of powers would allow "a thousand different experiments in a thousand different places".

"If we have the courage to accept that some experiments will fail, the overall standard will be immensely higher," he said.

The move could help the Conservatives "outflank" Labour, which has so far claimed the language of decentralisation, added Jenkin.

"Conservatives want to support those institutions – many relational, small and local – far away from the interfering hands of the central state – that promote self-government and, therefore, civilisation," he added.

"That means Whitehall must let go."

Four principles

Jenkin outlined four principals of decentralisation for England.

"First, we need to decide who does what. What should Whitehall and Westminster do? And what should local councils do? There must be clear demarcation of responsibilities," he said.

"Second, we need create no new layers of government; no new banks of politicians.

"Third, we must enable local councils to become less dependent upon central government grant and to raise more of what they spend in local taxation without increasing the overall tax burden on hard-pressed families.

"Fourth, we must embrace diversity and pursue not the equalisation of outcomes, but the maximisation of opportunities for all."

He added that the "crushing drive for standardisation" should stop.

Labour concerns

Writing in the FT on Monday, former Cabinet minister Alan Milburn also called on the government to extend its approach to local diversity.

"A third New Labour term should be about moving power from the state and giving it to the public," he wrote.

"Some say we have gone too far and must stop.  I say we have not gone far enough and need to go further."

Milburn added that the government's aim should be to strengthen both individuals and communities.