Blears flags up citizen power white paper

6 Mar 08
Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has announced a white paper on empowering citizens after a government survey found that more than nine out of ten people thought local councils' accountability could be improved.

07 March 2008

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has announced a white paper on empowering citizens after a government survey found that more than nine out of ten people thought local councils' accountability could be improved.

The paper is expected in the summer and will focus on four themes: improving deprived areas through regeneration; encouraging active citizenship and reviving local democracy; improving local public services; and strengthening local accountability. It will respond to the Independent Councillors Commission report on broadening local authority representation, published in December.

Blears' announcement on March 5 followed a survey by the Department for Communities and Local Government, which found that more than six out of ten members of the public did not feel they had enough say in how council services were run.

Only 45% of those asked said their council listened to their views, while 92% felt accountability of local councils 'could be improved'.

Publishing a 'launch document' ahead of the white paper, Blears said citizens must be given more opportunities to influence decisions affecting their local services.

The initiative follows Blears' December announcement of plans to compel local authorities to respond to any petition signed by 250 residents, and the launch of pilot 'community contracts' between councils and local people in January.

Blears said: 'I want to hear from the public about what more we can do to reinvigorate the grass roots of local democracy, to encourage active citizenship, and to enable people to connect with their local leaders.'

She added: 'We need a little less social engineering and a lot more social enterprise, and I look forward to hearing thoughts on how we get there.'

A Local Government Association spokesman said: 'Anything that improves accountability and makes councils more responsive to what local people want is great.' But he added: 'We've done our own research using figures from the DCLG, which showed value for money is the most important driver of satisfaction. There's very little correlation between public involvement and satisfaction with councils, which suggests people would rather their councils just got on with the job.'

Earlier, at a hearing of the Commons modernisation select committee, Blears was quizzed on plans to increase the accountability of regional bodies, following last year's publication of a Governance of Britain green paper, which proposed regional parliamentary select committees.

Blears told the MPs there were arguments in favour of each of three types of potential scrutiny body: a traditional select committee, a 'grand committee' of MPs from each region, and a hybrid model.

Asked if a hybrid offered the 'most exciting' option, Blears said there was an opportunity to create arrangements that would be 'meaningful to the public'.

An innovative structure would allow 'local authorities to play a role, not necessarily as members of a select committee but having genuine input' alongside MPs, she said.

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