11 July 2008
A bid to revitalise local democracy and hand control over assets and spending to local communities were at the heart of the local government white paper published by Communities Secretary Hazel Blears on July 9.
Communities in control: real people, real power outlines a mixture of proposals, including setting up an asset transfer unit to speed up the transfer of local authority assets to community ownership; amending the 'Widdicombe rules' to allow more council staff to be involved in political activity; and offering incentives, such as prize draws, to the public for voting in elections.
Launching the white paper, Blears said: 'In many parts of the country, local democracy needs a boost, with low turnout at local elections and people feeling they can't influence the way some issues are decided in their area. This needs to change.'
She added. 'Politicians have a contract with those that they serve – that contract now needs to be rewritten to ensure that the views of local people are taken more into account.'
Blears told MPs that the community empowerment plans would create a duty for councils to respond to petitions signed by over 5% of the population in their area. There would be a review of whether councils should provide 'financial redress' for citizens if service promises are not met.
The white paper will also allow for the expansion of participatory budgeting – where local people help set spending priorities – to all councils by 2012.
In addition, the white paper aims to make it easier for local authorities to establish a directly elected mayor, by permitting online petitioning and lowering the threshold required to trigger a mayoral referendum from 5% of the population to possibly just 2%.
To try to encourage more people to be councillors, provision would be made to allow remote participation and voting in meetings.
People will also be able to appeal to the secretary of state if their attempt to establish a village, neighbourhood or community council is denied by their local authority.
Blears said the plans laid out in the white paper would herald a new era of community activism. 'We will transfer more assets such as community centres, street markets, swimming pools, parks and land to local community ownership. We want to see more local co-ops and mutually owned groups running local services,' she said.
This devolution from councils downwards includes making it easier for social enterprises and faith-based groups to compete for service contracts and extra funding for community groups, including a £70m community builders fund.
But the plans to improve local accountability for NHS primary care trusts and police authorities were largely deferred, to be dealt with in the forthcoming NHS Constitution and policing green papers.
Sir Simon Milton, chair of the Local Government Association, welcomed the proposals for representing the best that councils had to offer.
'Councils fully support even greater participation from local people as a complement to councils themselves taking more responsibility for decisions affecting their area,' he said.
Milton said the duty to promote democracy for councils should avoid prescription, while proposed 'question time' events for public officials should ensure officers were not put 'under inappropriate pressure'.
The director of the New Local Government Network think-tank, Chris Leslie, said local government should use the consultation process to promote a greater role for councils in local health and policing delivery. 'While devolution at a local level is to be welcomed, there is no reason why the empowerment white paper shouldn't also shine a light into Westminster and Whitehall, applying all these laudable principles across the entirety of public services,' he said.
But the opposition parties criticised the white paper, with the Conservatives accusing the government of dismantling rules designed to protect taxpayers.
Shadow local government secretary Eric Pickles said: 'These policies are the product of a bankrupt Labour Party, wanting to stuff more cash into the pockets of Labour councillors, bribe their voters, bring back jobs for the boys and slip in back-door state funding.'
Liberal Democrat communities and local government spokeswoman Julia Goldsworthy said the government was playing catch-up with councils already doing the things in the white paper. 'Why is there no duty to devolve placed on the government? Councils should be given control over their own finances so that they are no longer dependent on Whitehall handouts,' she said.
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