I think that things went wrong because when Swindon became a unitary authority in 1997, it was left inadequately prepared by the previous Government and never recovered from that bad start. Every day for the past eight years, the consequences of the failures have hurt people who depend on public services. Far from helping people, the council all too often made difficult and stressful situations worse. Today, however, there is clear evidence that the council is beginning to turn itself around. There are new management systems in place. It has capable new directors and a new, highly effective and capable chief executive.

What has happened? National Government have intervened on the local authority. The Department for Education and Skills drove through changes to such an extent that, within two years, Ofsted found that the number of functions performed by the local education authority that were rated as satisfactory or better had increased from 30 per cent. to 85 per cent.

Ministers and officials from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister have been working closely with the council to transform the delivery of services to residents and supporting it to do so. It has lent Swindon borough council one of its most capable officials, who has years of experience of local government and helping failing local authorities to turn themselves around. She has been working with the council over the past few months to introduce rigorous accounting systems and to ensure that, at last, it focuses on the recipients of services. The people of Swindon owe a debt of gratitude to Anne-Marie Carre and all the officials in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister who have done much to help them. Swindon has received extra financial resources from the Government. Not only has grant increased by 30 per cent. since 2001, but one-off additional funding has been provided such as £1 million to build extra capacity in the council, and there is also the possibility of a further £1 million.

None of that would have been possible without the dedication and expertise of the previous Minister with responsibility for local government, my right hon. Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford), whom we thank. It is reassuring that he has been succeeded by my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham, East and Saddleworth (Mr. Woolas), who has already demonstrated his concern that Swindon stays on the right track.

The recovery process has involved a partnership, and I pay tribute to both the ruling group and the Labour group on Swindon borough council for their willingness to embrace the improvement agenda constructively and to work co-operatively with the ODPM. A great deal remains to be done and the situation is by no means perfect, but the council is on the mend.

The partnership that turned around the council has much to contribute to the debate about the division of powers in our democracy, about which we have already heard quite a lot today. When we hear fashionable talk about "localism", the debate is always focused on the benefits of devolving power to the smallest possible political unit, and there are, of course, benefits to that approach. However, "local" can also mean limited and restricted, and localism can work against the equitable distribution of resources throughout the country, a subject about which we have heard a lot this afternoon. In the past, localism has also worked against a cohesive sense of national identity. Such fashionable talk does not contemplate the consequences when localism is not enough and local authorities fail, and it forgets that the least advantaged and the most vulnerable get hurt first and worst when local authorities fail in the same way as Swindon failed.

In my view, the ODPM has helped to turn around the situation in Swindon. Perhaps the defenders of localism would argue that in time the people of Swindon would elect councillors who would turn around the council themselves without such intervention. However, real life does not work like that, and it did not work like that in Swindon. The people of Swindon elected new councillors who had the power and the money to make significant improvements, but, for whatever reason, they did not make them. The people of Swindon elected new representatives over and over again, but none of those representatives was any more able than their predecessors to make the necessary improvements.

Central Government can be sclerotic, slow and clog up the delivery of public services, but central Government can also be good government—a national Government working nationally and locally for the good. The fashionably derided system of targets and inspections quantified Swindon borough council's failures and provided an objective basis for the intervention that is turning round its performance. 
 
National Government provide the breadth and depth of expertise that is not always found in one local authority. Swindon's experience demonstrates the benefits of national Government.

I hope that my hon. Friend the Deputy Leader of the House will take my points to the ODPM, because we are very grateful for everything that it has done in Swindon. In partnership with the Labour group and the ruling group on Swindon borough council, the ODPM is about to make a difference for the people of Swindon.