Fishburn Hedges

11.10.2010

The Coalition has changed not just politics and policy, but the rules of the public affairs game too.  Politics and policymaking are already very different under the Coalition.  Public affairs at Fishburn Hedges is responding by becoming even more "content-driven".  Here's what I mean.

In the pre-Coalition days, it was much easier to engage with and influence central government.  Constant one-party rule, plenty of manoeuvre on spending, and a very centralised state.  Flick a few switches, policy result.

Those days are gone. This Government is harder to penetrate than its predecessors.  Ministers are now much more constrained – by their own very clear Coalition Agreement, by the spending squeeze, and by their promise to decentralise power.

First, the Coalition Agreement in May was super-clear, pinning down loads of commitments on deficit reduction, bank regulation, welfare reform, etc. Conservative and Lib Dem ministers have been in a rush to start delivering it all, and have been extra-impervious to external pleading. The scope for changing the Agreement is rather limited.

Second, there's less cash to spend.  After the phoney, cross-party pre-election silence on spending cuts, the penny is finally starting to drop (or disappear). The overall shape of the impending Spending Review is now clear, with around 25% cuts in many departments over the next four years. The scope for changing ministers’ minds on this is zero.

Third, government is going local.  Cameron and co are determined to devolve power from Whitehall. Localism will be a trademark of this Government.  Those wishing to engage with ministers will increasingly need to look beyond the Whitehall beltway, and engage as well with local government and community groups. The scope for stitching up policy from the centre is somewhat reduced.

All three trends were in evidence during the party conference season.  Lib Dem and Conservative ministers were all ploughing ahead with their Coalition Agreement announcements, trying to soften up their parties for the spending cuts to come, and adopting a much more localist tone.  Labour, meanwhile, is now in the ideas business – looking for fresh thinking on the whole range of policy issues, as Ed Miliband seeks to renew his party from opposition.

This new politics demands a different approach to public affairs.  Ministers are less interested in open-ended "meet and greet" sessions.  They are looking for answers to difficult questions on welfare reform and infrastructure finance - pragmatic, fully costed thinking; innovative new approaches that require less public funding; and more local variation.

Fishburn Hedges public affairs is responding.  We're taking an even more content-driven approach, aiming to promote innovative policy ideas to government.  With our clients, we’re planning to help answer the big policy challenges of this Parliament – for example on welfare reform, banking reform and infrastructure finance.  And given the emphasis on localism we will aim to engage more beyond Whitehall & Westminster, with local government.

Posted by Dermot Finch