Few would have thought when he was first elected to Kent County Council in 1989 that Sandy Bruce Lockhart would eight years later lead his party back into power and become one of the most powerful advocates of the localist agenda, helping return it centre stage in British politics. At the time he was a self-confessed cynic about local government, but as one of those leading the protests against the route of the proposed high speed railway line on behalf of the Weald of Kent Preservation Society, he was persuaded to stand for the Council and was elected for Maidstone Rural East, the seat he held until he died on 14th August. He had indicated that he would give a day a week to being a County Councillor, but the Kent County Council took over his life, as he realised the importance and value of local government. He became a passionate supporter of greater decentralisation and the devolution of power from Whitehall. After two years as Vice Chairman, he succeeded Sir Jeremy Beecham as Chairman of the Local Government Association in July 2004 and used his position to press a cross party case for greater reliance on local authorities to deliver a reform agenda. It was, he believed, the only way to deal with the gulf that was opening up between politicians and people. He told Ruth Kelly in July 2006 that there had been “an erosion of democracy, a crisis of trust, a cynicism with politicians and with the ability of seemingly unreachable governance to deliver solutions. We must give people back power and influence over their lives, their local services, and the future of places where they live.”
He was made a life peer in June 2006 and appointed as Chairman of English Heritage in August 2007, a job where he could deploy his negotiating skills and his love of history, landscape and the environment. Paying tribute to the major contribution he had made in twelve months, the Chief Executive, Simon Thurley, noted that, battling hard, he had secured a reversal of the decade long decline in the organisation’s real terms funding and had “achieved a major breakthrough in our plans for Stonehenge, convincing Ministers that the new, affordable scheme was worth Government backing.”
Anthony John Bruce Lockhart came from a Scottish family that had made its mark on education and in diplomacy. He was born in Wakefield on 4 May 1942 and was educated at The Dragon School, Sedbergh and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. He worked abroad, managing a farm in Zimbabwe for its South African owner 1963-5, and after UDI spent some time in Australia. By what he always regarded as a remarkable twist of fate, he was persuaded to exchange passages with a friend and ended up on the same boat as the girl who was to become his wife in 1966. They had two sons and a daughter. He and Tess settled at Headcorn in Kent, where Sandy farmed a 300 acre fruit farm and for a while kept a herd of Guernseys. Although not a native, Sandy soon came to love his adopted County, its countryside, people and history.
After his election to the County Council, Sandy took over the leadership of a Conservative Group, demoralised by being out of office for the first time in the County Council’s history, and in 1997, a year of national humiliation for the Conservative Party, he took his group back into power in Kent. He was determined to restore the County to its proper place in the premier league of local government. Under his leadership the Council went through significant changes. Senior management was restructured, with thirteen Chief Officers reduced to six, and business models introduced. The creation of sixty business units enabled him to bring policy and resources into line. But these changes did not cut the heart out of the authority, rather they left it leaner and with a sharper focus on its task of serving the public. He had early been struck by the commitment of those who served the authority and felt that their strong ethic for helping others and their deep commitment to the work they were doing was undervalued by society. He was also acutely aware that while there was genuine affluence in Kent, much of the County did not share in it. Sandy had a strong social conscience and as his Member of Parliament, Ann Widdecombe, observed he thought that people had “lost their sense of belonging and that the disadvantaged need a hand-up as well as a hand out.” He would have liked to see full responsibility and powers return to local authorities to deal with worklessness and welfare dependency and sought in July 2007 to amend the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill to that effect. During his leadership the County Council was amongst the first, if not the first, to negotiate agreements with central government, pioneering a system that is now part of the local government scene, and it was by no means the only policy innovation that came from Kent during his time as leader. The Guardian, no less, describing him in 2000 as the most powerful Tory politician in the country, identified the principles on which he operated as the “new Toryism…. firm financial management with an equally strong economic, moral and social agenda.” And it was in that spirit that he gave early support to Iain Duncan Smith’s Centre for Social Justice, certain that putting social justice at the heart of Conservative politics was critical to the future of his party.
He was knighted for his services in 2003 and became an influential figure in the Conservative Party (the 38th most influential, the Telegraph reckoned). When he stepped down from Council leadership in October 2005, Kent had gained the top rating in Government performance tables for the previous two years.
Sandy had already established himself by then as a formidable national leader. He presided over the Transmanche Euroregion in 1998-99, chaired the LGA’s Environment and Regeneration Executive 1999-2002, and became one of the Association’s Vice Chairmen in 2002. Amongst several campaigns, his fight for reform of the asylum system was notable. When he became the fist Conservative Chairman of the Local Government Association, he worked tirelessly to revive the fortunes of local government. The present Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, described him as “a powerful and effective advocate for a strong local government” and he worked passionately across party divides to achieve a concerted drive to secure that end. He was made a life peer in 2006 and took the title Baron Bruce-Lockhart of the Weald.
When he stood down in July 2007 to become Chairman of English Heritage, he had won the respect and affection of colleagues in all parties. Urbane, courteous, good humoured and tactful, he was also passionate and determined to do what was right, and they respected him for that. Within three months he was found to be suffering from cancer: over the succeeding months, he fought the disease with characteristic courage and determination. He refused to let it affect his contributions to debate in the Lords, where his deep knowledge of local government enabled him to make a valuable contribution to debates and exercise a constructive influence on Government legislation designed to strengthen local empowerment.
He remained actively engaged in Kent, Chairing the Health Oversight and Scrutiny Committee and presiding over the affairs of the Maidstone Conservative Association. He was also a Trustee of the Institute of Social Justice, regarded by Iain Duncan Smith as “a committed friend whose advice and support was invaluable”. His successor as leader of the Kent County Council described him, simply, as “a force for good” and his quiet by forceful voice will long be missed on the local government scene.
He died on 14 August 2008.