As noted in Chapter Three, elected mayors have proved very much the exception among the four decision-making models available to local authorities under the terms of the 2000 Local Government Act. The dominant model has been that of the ‘cabinet and leader’, which operates in 81% of all English authorities. In this chapter the experience of this dominant model is reviewed. Has its introduction made any substantial difference to political organisation and behaviour in local authorities? But it is important not to forget that 59 councils (15% of all authorities) are operating the ‘fourth option’. Authorities with populations of 85,000 or below were permitted (as a result of a House of Lords intervention) to retain a committee system, albeit with strong pressure to ‘streamline’ existing structures, that is, to reduce the number of committees (although one third of authorities that could have opted for ‘alternative arrangements’ chose to operate a cabinet and leader system). What has been the experience of these ‘alternative arrangement’ authorities?

‘Fourth option’ authorities

There is evidence of ‘more streamlined’ decision making in ‘fourth option’ authorities, in particular a move towards strengthened policy and resources committees with wider remits, and fewer traditional free-standing service committees (Gains et al, 2004). In the one large authority which operates the fourth option (Brighton and Hove, as a result of a failed mayoral referendum), the decision-making system is reported as moving towards a de facto cabinet and leader system (Leach et al, 2005). The pressure on fourth option authorities to streamline their structures has been intensified through the influence of Comprehensive Performance Assessments (CPAs), which use the assumptions about ‘strong leadership’ and ‘clear lines of accountability’ (which underpin the move to local executives) to evaluate the performance of authorities (among many other criteria). Indeed one senses a level of incomprehension in some of the CPA reports about how local authorities with a continuing tradition of independence from party politics and relatively diffuse patterns of leadership could possibly operate effectively. North Shropshire District Council – a delightful rural backwater, which includes the towns of Whitchurch, Wem, Market Drayton and Ellesmere – received in 2004 one of the most damning CPA assessments yet published (involving a ‘poor’ overall assessment) in which such incomprehension was apparent. The report has had the desired effect of generating moves to more focused leadership and a single policy and resource committee.