Miliband supports power to the people

Ed Miliband (centre) meets Oldham Council leader, Councillor Jim McMahon (left) and Michael Stephenson, general secretary of the Co-opertive Party

Co-operative initiative launched by party leader
LABOUR leader Ed Miliband has backed Oldham’s move to give more power to local people.

He visited Rochdale — birthplace of the Co-operative movement — to launch his party’s Co-operative Councils initiative.

Local government leaders who have signed up to the vision to transform council services took part in Friday’s summit.

They included Oldham Council leader Jim McMahon and his counterparts from cities such as Liverpool and Salford.

Mr Miliband wants to end “top-down” services where people are expected to “put up” with what is on offer.

Instead, he wants services to meet the needs of local people by finding ways to give them more power and choice.

And he stressed that Labour’s vision was different from Prime Minister David Cameron’s “big society”, saying: “The problem about the ‘big society’ is, at the end of the day, the Conservative view seems to be ‘get government out of the way, get government funding out of the way, and then people will do it themselves’.”

He said that Government investment mattered, but that people should have a bigger say in it, and explained: “The decisions that people want made in their lives, things that affect them, shouldn’t just be made by councils, shouldn’t just be made by council officers.

“All of our experience is if we involve people in decision making that will make a big, big difference to the quality of services.”

Oldham’s co-operative council plans include the establishment of district offices and local town halls. A community dividend fund would also allow council employees to take two days’ leave to assist in community projects. Community groups could be given help to take on council-owned buildings and leasehold sites to create community hubs.

Mr McMahon said the council was also examining its deposit accounts, which at any one time hold £100-150 million of taxpayers’ money, to make sure that they do not back organisations such as arms dealers.

“We have an ethical responsibility. That might mean we have to accept a lower interest rate, but ethically it’s the right thing to do.”

Mr Miliband was asked if people would want to get involved or if they had enough to do looking after their own families in the current economic crisis.

“If you take the issue of housing or services for young people, people really care about what decisions are made and I think they will want to get involved,” he said.

l Mr Miliband was inundated with questions about the News of the World phone-hacking scandal on his visit.

The Labour leader said News International chief Rebekah Brooks was right to resign, and he called for Rupert Murdoch to apologise to the victims and take responsibility for what happened when he appears before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee tomorrow.

“Rebekah Brooks made the right decision to resign. I think it was overdue, but I said, when I called for her resignation 10 days ago, this wasn’t one individual, it was about the control of the organisation,” he said.