News
Insight: essential youth sector analysis and reflection - Issue 15, 15 December 2010
15 December 2010
The Localism Bill
This week the Government published the Localism Bill which illustrates the Government’s vision to move power away from central government to local councils, communities and individuals. The Bill includes a package of reforms that will devolve greater power and freedoms to councils and neighbourhoods and establish new rights for communities, giving them more control over issues such as planning and housing decisions.
So what does the Bill cover?
Central to the Bill is a new general power of competence which intends to reduce bureaucratic demands on Councils and enable them to act in the best interests of their area, rather than being subject to centrally set targets. There will also be a new power to create directly elected mayors in 12 cities.
The Bill intends to offer local communities the right to hold their local authorities to account and to shape their local area. It includes a community right to challenge, question and take over a local service. This could include children's centres, social care services or transport. There will be a new right to bid to buy local assets and amenities such as libraries, pubs and shops. The planning system will also be reformed, replacing regional planning with neighbourhood planning where communities will have the power to grant planning permission if a local majority are in favour.
The Bill will also introduce a new Community Right to Build enabling communities to come together to build new homes and amenities in their towns and villages. Councils will be in charge of allocation and tenure of social housing, and social tenants will be able to relocate though a new National Homeswap Scheme. Tenants will also be able to scrutinise the services offered by their landlords and hold them to account.
The Government has also published Decentralisation and the Localism Bill: an essential guide. Its sets out six practical steps or actions central government will need to take to achieve and maintain this radical shift in power – in behaviour, expectation and culture. They are:
- Lift the burden of bureaucracy
- Empower communities to do things their way
- Increase local control of public finance
- Diversify the supply of public services
- Open up government to public scrutiny
- Strengthen accountability to local people
What has been the reaction?
The Localism Bill has been published against the background of huge cuts in local government. Ted Cantle, commenting in the Daily Mirror said: “People are being asked to run libraries, parks and other facilities to build the Big Society – but the reality is this may be the only way they can be retained at all”.
Commenting in the Guardian, Peter Hetherington said: “The shift in emphasis to the grassroots, which is meant to put communities in control of many local services raises as many questions as it answers. Do communities have the appetite and capacity to handle decentralisation on this scale when there is little or no grassroots democracy? Can they generate the cash to employ professionals – accountants, and planners, for instance – while generating funds to run municipal assets such as parks, playing fields, and libraries?”
David Walker, the former managing director of public reporting at the Audit Commission, argues that the localism bill is a con. He said: “Proclaiming a "power of general competence" for elected councils, the legislation will reflect the government's profound uncertainty over whether it actually trusts the people elected to run the town and county halls. Especially with money – even the money they raise locally”.
What happens next?
The Government is currently consulting on better ways of commissioning public services by increasing the role of charities, social enterprises, mutuals and co-operatives in public service delivery. This Green Paper will form part of a wider Public Service Reform White Paper, announced in the Spending Review, which will be published early in 2011. The Government wants to reform public services by shifting power away from central government to civil society organisations, with the intention that they play a greater role in shaping services. In particular, the consultation is looking at how to encourage further reform in areas such as:
- Extending innovative payment and funding mechanisms
- Developing new rights for communities and public employees to buy and run services
- Setting benchmarks for outsourcing services
- Bringing external investment and expertise into service reform
- Increasing democratic accountability at a local level
The consultation deadline is 5 January 2011.