Coalitions can't, but directly elected officials do

And that should be no surprise.

The nature of STV, introduced for the 2007 local government elections, militates against effective leadership, the outcome in many areas being shared administrations with the participants engaged in uneasy coalitions with competing political agendas, no strategic vision and no clear sense of direction.

Edinburgh is a case in point: a Lib Dem/SNP administration frequently at war, the most important transport project in the city's history the focus for that conflict. The Lib Dems support the trams, the SNP don't but have given grudging support "now that the work has started". Only recently, over the issue of necessary school closures, the coalition again almost foundered. It is no way to run a local authority, far less Scotland's capital city.

Irrespective of the parties involved, coalitions – which now run 30 out of Scotland's 32 local councils – do not provide a model best suited to allowing local political leadership to come forward.

If Scottish local government is to meet the growing challenges that it is currently facing, and not necessarily overcoming, consideration should be given to introducing directly elected political leaders as one means of reinvigorating local government leadership.

Introducing directly elected leaders would have the essential advantage over the current system of creating a direct line of accountability between the citizen and the leader, allowing the electorate to give due consideration to the leadership qualities of candidates during the election campaign, and at the end of a four-year term, to be in a position to judge whether or not promises have been delivered.

Research in England indicates that directly elected mayors have been more successful than the leadership they replaced. Seen to be more visible, more likely to have a coherent vision for their area, better at forging relationships with their local community, they also made decisions more speedily and were generally less partisan.

Whatever view one has about the merits of either Ken Livingstone or Boris Johnson, there can be no argument that the introduction of a directly elected mayor for London has been a resounding success. There is no campaign to return the governance of London to the previous model.

The London mayor is London's spokesperson. He sets budgets for the Greater London Authority, Transport for London, the London Development Agency, the Metropolitan police, and London's fire services. Of equal significance at a time when cities are becoming even more important as economic drivers the mayor, as London's ambassador, is able to sell London to potential overseas investors in a way that is more difficult to achieve with a system that diffuses leadership.

That is not to say that the London mayor is unaccountable. The London Assembly provide checks and balances on the mayor in a number of ways. Subject to a two-thirds majority, it has the power to amend the mayor's budget; it can summon the mayor, senior GLA staff as well as anyone in a contractual relationship with or in receipt of grant from the Assembly. There are also ten Question Time sessions annually and the assembly also reviews the mayor's draft strategies and give its views on them at meetings open to the public. Indeed the visibility of an elected mayor makes each decision made subject to heightened scrutiny particularly by the media and public.

In short the London mayor has, rightly in my view, at least the power and status of a member of the UK government and significantly more political clout and influence of any number of back bench MPs.

And in the Scottish context this is of growing importance. It is no surprise to seasoned political observers that the creation of the Scottish Parliament has resulted in the centre seeking new powers and centralising others, a tendency given extra impetus by the difficulties inherent in distributing resources to 32 local councils.

Government ministers are now determining which schools should be replaced, planning has become more centralised and despite the much-heralded end of ring-fencing there can be no doubt that Scottish local government is now dancing to a centrally driven tune.

Indeed it is somewhat ironic that in some areas under devolution, citizens are now further from important decision-making processes that affect their local communities than they were when Westminster was in charge.

Strong directly elected leaders would help counteract that direction of travel. They would be able to speak clearly, coherently and with the backing of their local community. Again the experience from England demonstrates that strong leadership can counteract government's centralising tendencies. Since its inception the London Mayor has gained important new powers over housing and planning partially because ministers are more likely to devolve powers where there are clear lines of accountability in place.

Do the public support the concept? A 2008 LNLGN/MORI poll found that 38 per cent of respondents supported the idea of a directly elected mayor for their council with 29 per cent opposing it. Support was stronger when asked if major UK cities should have elected mayors with 40 per cent for and only 16 per cent against. When asked if they could identify their local council leader 71 per cent could not. A sharp contrast with a survey in Newham where 67 per cent of residents were able to name their directly elected mayor.

Successive administrations both pre and post devolution have displayed a remarkable lack of creativity when considering the future of Scottish local government. Single solutions have been applied throughout Scotland. Innovation has been conspicuous by its absence.

Scottish local government is grey, so time perhaps to introduce a bit of colour? If Scottish local government is to be revitalised it would be surely be worthwhile at the very least to give consideration to introducing the concept of directly elected leaders to one of Scotland's cities. And why not Edinburgh?

Keith Geddes is policy director with Pagoda PR, a former CoSLA president and former leader of Edinburgh City Council.