The latest on the Localism Bill

Localism Bill signals big changes for local authorities and communities. 

The Localism Bill has been introduced to Parliament and the Department for Communities and Local Government has published further details on the aims of the reforms in an ‘essential guide’ which will also form the basis for further decentralisation policy ideas and actions across Government.

This is just one part of the Coalition’s wider reforms contributing to the Big Society policy agenda, which has included transparency requirements and abolishing Comprehensive Area Assessments. The Government recently launched its ‘Barrier Busting’ scheme, which it states will give councils and communities access to civil servants to help overcome obstacles they face while tackling community projects.

What is in the Bill?
The Government’s goal is to shift power from central government to local authorities (LAs) to give greater control over funding to deliver what is needed in the local community. The Government states that measures in the Bill will give communities the right to a greater say in local community choices and developments.   

• LAs will be given a General Power of Competence to allow them to act on issues that are not prohibited by law with the aim of enabling innovative local solutions.  The rules of predetermination will be abolished which previously deterred councillors acting on some local issues.
• Regional Strategies will be abolished and replaced with democratic decision making processes and focused local plans with visions for the future.
• LAs will be required to produce an annual statement of Chief Officer remuneration
• Communities will be able to petition for local referendums on issues affecting the local community.
• A Council Tax Referendum will be introduced enabling citizens to challenge excessive increases via a requirement for a referendum when an excessive increase is proposed.
• New powers will be introduced allowing LAs to apply discounts to business rates to respond to local business needs.
• LAs will be required to allocate part of the revenues from Community Infrastructure Levy funds back into the area from which they were raised.
• The Community Right to Challenge will encourage local people to get involved in shaping the public services in their area via the right to challenge to run local authority services.
• Communities will be enabled to bid for ownership and management of local community assets which are threatened via Community Right to Buy including bids to deliver existing or new services adding to the diversification of services and providers of public services going forward.
• Reforms to the planning system to enable local people involvement in community development via neighbourhood plans
• The Standards Board will be abolished allowing councils to set up individual governance regimes.  Citizens will be able to hold elective representatives to account.
• Measures to introduce 12 directly elected mayoral positions in England subject to referendum.
• Changes to Housing including enabling LAs to limit who can apply for social housing within their areas if required.


What could it mean?
The Bill introduces a new range of risks for local authorities that should not be underestimated - new freedoms bring new accountabilities and expectations over delivery both nationally and locally. There is a danger that authorities become paralysed by some of the new community powers and it is important that each should review the Bill in detail to understand the risks and put in place the measures that ensure the opportunities are seized and delivered.

The measures in the Bill to diversify the provision of public service are seated in the Government’s wish to encourage innovative, more efficient and improved provision of public services. The Coalition states that centralisation with bureaucracy, detailed instruction, micro managed inspections, audits and resource allocation has not worked and had actually driven up costs and taken the focus away from specific local priorities. The Government’s stated aim is to address these and other issues including reported localised unresolved social issues and dissatisfaction with public service delivery through decentralisation of power measures in the Bill.

The Government vision sees LAs having a vital role in the decentralisation and localism agenda. The political aim is to transfer powers to authorities, which in turn could be rolled out to communities to deal with specific local issues and make the best use of local resources.

LA focus on funding and resource for local priority issues, as well as building local knowledge, business expertise and support is the goal of the legislation in order to help build the coalition Big Society community improvement agenda. 

Legislation would aim to give local people the ability to change services delivered to them by direct participation, choice or voting through referendums.  This will increase local authority accountability and challenges to authorities’ decision making.  Challenges over funding issues such as council tax increases and recycling part of the Community Infrastructure Levy could result in additional pressure for authorities regarding financial resource planning and allocation.  Introducing referendums for new issues will require LAs’ resources for voting to take place - potentially on an increased scale. 

LAs will need to consider these proposals with the array of wider policy reform announcements interlinking different proposals from the decentralisation and localism agenda and Big Society aims.  For example, different measures for diversity of public services including the planned New Rights To Provide measure announced by the Cabinet Office which will require employers to consider proposals from frontline employees who want to operate services as mutual organisations. 


Next Steps
It is important that LAs are aware of the Bill and consider the opportunities and risks stemming from the proposals.  All will need to consider the potential impact on implementing the changes when introduced.

CLG is welcoming input from experts in the matters presented in the published guide via e-mail at decentralisation@communities.gsi.gov.uk. 

The Bill is currently at Commons Committee stage and the Government aim is to gain Royal Assent for the Bill by November 2011.  The Government will issue a progress report by the summer of 2011 detailing the actions from each Whitehall department.

The Localism Bill 2010 -11 can be read in full at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmbills/126/11126.i-v.html

The Barrier Busting website can be found at http://barrierbusting.communities.gov.uk/

 
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