Labour will paralyse public services and hand more power to unaccountable quangos under plans to introduce an equality law, Kemi Badenoch warns in the Mail today.
From next year, the Government will force public authorities to give ‘due regard’ to disparities in income and socio-economic status when making decisions.
This ‘socio-economic duty’ – part of the 2010 Equality Act that has yet to be enacted – could enable public bodies to make spending decisions that penalise middle-class areas.
Writing in the Mail, the Tory leader brands the plan ‘ideological dross’ that could submerge Britain into a ‘bureaucratic nightmare’.
She warns: ‘It means your council obsessing over “impact assessments” while local roads decay, schools spending money on “equality training” instead of textbooks, government departments taking more time analysing postcodes than fixing real problems.’
She says the Tories blocked the duty for 14 years as it was ‘obviously misguided’, and accuses Labour of running out of ideas and doing things ‘nobody asked for’.
It will ‘paralyse public services and hand more power to unaccountable quangos’, she says.
Labour is consulting on how to implement the duty, having pledged to roll it out in its manifesto.
The Act was pushed through by the previous Labour government, but the section on socio-economic duty was vetoed by the Tories after the 2010 election.
Theresa May, then home secretary, announced the scrapping of the duty, and said the government would fight inequality ‘by treating people as individuals rather than labelling them in groups’.
Council bosses fear they could be taken to court under the duty if disadvantaged groups claim officials haven’t paid attention to their needs, The Times reported.
A Government spokesman said the duty was ‘part of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity.
This will ensure public bodies consider how their decisions might help reduce inequalities associated with socio-economic disadvantage. Public bodies can ensure their views are heard by engaging with our call for evidence, which is currently live’.
