Ross Martin: Capital’s coalition can seek counsel in west

It has been a long time coming, but it is finally running in Edinburgh. No, not the tram, but a coalition of Scotland’s two heavyweight political parties. As the Centre for Scottish Public Policy predicted in the days before the election, Labour and the SNP, who had been running on largely parallel policy tracks in the capital, have agreed a joint programme and entered into a political partnership.

At a time of considerable budgetary challenge the two largest parties on Edinburgh City Council appear to have concluded that the pursuit of political stability is more important than maintaining the petty tribalism that has characterised their relationship, at national and local levels, for far too long. This takes real guts.

Of course, this particular political combination, forming the ruling administration of a council, is not new. A Labour-SNP coalition has been running East Renfrewshire Council since the last local government elections in 2007. Although it may come as a shock to the more pugilistic of political activists, there has been no blood spilled on that council chamber carpet, there has been no mass defection from the ranks of either party and yes, night still follows day in East Renfrewshire.

That first coalition involving these two parties was constructed in a national atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion, with the central party headquarters, after the last council election in 2007, being very sceptical of the wisdom of such a move. The local party leaders in East Renfrewshire trusted their instincts and took the bold step to create the first Labour-SNP coalition.

This particular political partnership has proven to be not only robust enough to take on the Education Secretary over a key part of the implementation of his central policy initiative, the Curriculum for Excellence, but also amiable enough for the SNP and Labour groups to do it all over again. They have agreed to work together in coalition for another term, building upon what they see as their successful and stable partnership.

As the political atmosphere becomes more febrile at the national level, with the start of the referendum campaign, will this or any other Labour-SNP council coalition be able to thrive and be strong enough to take on the difficult budgetary challenges coming down the line? Indeed, what lessons may Edinburgh’s coalition learn from its successful counterpart in East Renfrewshire?

Let’s look at education, which is any local authority’s largest function and is responsible for somewhere between a third and a half of the overall budget, depending on what definition of service is used. Against a stable political backdrop, East Renfrewshire has taken its schools from strength to strength, consistently outperforming all other local authority areas in Scotland.

Of course, this work was started before the last council election, in fact right after East Renfrewshire was created in 1996, but the key issue here is that the coalition has enabled a continuation of the political stability that existed before.

In Edinburgh’s case, the previous administration relied upon the casting vote of the Lord Provost, a mechanism that is itself anathema to local democracy. This was an inherently unstable state, which understandably struggled when under serious pressure. One such issue was the proposed school rationalisation programme, designed to better match the supply of places with the localised demand for them. Closing schools is probably the most difficult task for local councillors, and the then Lib Dem-SNP coalition had to backtrack and think again.

Now that the Lib Dems have been decapitated by an enraged electorate, they would appear to be in no position to challenge the incoming administration’s inevitable attempt at “take two” of the schools review.

A fundamental rethink of the school estate will also allow Edinburgh to better plan much needed improvement in their education offering, tackling the twin issues of loss to the private sector at the top end of ability and the forced immobility of those who traditionally struggle in Scotland’s state schools – pupils from lower income backgrounds.

East Renfrewshire has cleverly utilised the top-up to some of its school rolls, sourced from just over the border in Glasgow’s suburbs, to improve the mix of some of its catchment areas, and therefore their performance. The time is ripe for Edinburgh to inject a fresh dose of energy by attracting pupils from the private sector, and witnessing a similarly rapid rise in levels of attainment, while tackling poor performance at the lower end of the range.

One in four high school pupils, or their parents on their behalf, opt out of Edinburgh’s state school provision and into the very strong network of private schools that exists across Edinburgh. Dealing with this leakage is paramount. A stable political context, with the two tribes of Scottish politics working together, can deliver radical change, but only if they set about it early and with real commitment.

All across the council’s services, tough decisions must be taken early if improvements, which must be the motivation for change rather than efficiency savings per se, are to show through before the coalition’s date with democratic destiny, in four years. There is also the small matter of a vote on the future constitutional status of Scotland in the autumn of 2014 to contend with.

The Labour-SNP coalition must move quickly. Hold on to your hats as this is going to be a bumpy ride. Now, what did those manifestos say about potholes on the road to the referendum?

• Ross Martin is director of policy at the Centre for Scottish Public Policy (www.cspp.org.uk)