As local government academics like to remind Whitehall's centralisers, most of this country's crucial services were pioneered by local councils - clean water, welfare, schools, hospitals, subsidised rented housing. True, most of this happened in the 19th century and much of it was overtaken with the launch of the post-second world war welfare state.
But until recently, there was one tradition that councils clung on to: self-sufficiency. They may, under Margaret Thatcher, have lost their business rate and £30bn of services to quangos, but what they had left they took pride in running independently of their neighbours. Local rivalries played a part. So did council reorganisations, which set new geographical boundaries to reflect feasible service boundaries.
Even after six years of New Labour urgings for partnerships and joined-up government, there is still only limited cross-boundary collaboration in mainstream services. There are many partnerships within council boundaries between voluntary, private and public agencies - one county counted 350 - but little joint delivery across borders.
All this is due to change. A report out today from the New Local Government Network thinktank has identified a small scattering of cross-border collaborations among Britain's 500 councils. It is a trend that Iain Roxburgh, former chief executive of Coventry city council now turned consultant and author of the report, suggests will spread.
He points to several developments driving this change: e-government targets for online local public services that could prompt smaller councils to collaborate; generous government subsidies for "pathfinder" partnerships (half of the 24 involve more than one local council); the audit commission's forthcoming comprehensive performance assessment of district councils, which will include a look at their cooperation with county councils.
The list of 20 successful collaborations that Roxburgh sets out cover not just "back office" services (like the nine councils cooperating with IT in North Yorkshire), or a joint waste disposal company (Coventry and Solihull), but mainstream services too: Avon and Wiltshire mental health trust involving five councils, or a joint exercise by Shropshire, and Telford and Wrekin local education authorities.
Roxburgh points to the benefits of collaboration: economies of scale; better use of expert staff; learning from each other. But he points also to the invisible barriers that have to be overcome: parochialism, vested interests, baggage from the past, fear of domination. They are daunting, but are breaking down.
· Crossing Boundaries, £20, NLGN, 42 Southwark St, London SE1 1UN. Tel 020-7357 0051
