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Communities in control: real people, real power - key themes

The White Paper aims to address issues around ‘lack of power and influence at a local level’. These include:

New rights for the public to demand action from their council
Councils will be subject to a new duty to respond to petitions. Petitions will enable local people to force an issue onto a council's agenda. With enough signatures that issue would need to be discussed by the full council committee and could be subject to a vote. This could be used to raise issues as diverse as bin collections and street cleaning, or the state of local parks.

Increasing accountability
Chairs and Chief Executives of local public bodies - such as councils - will face regular public hearings as part of plans to increase accountability. More visible 'local question times' will give the public a chance to question officials about how they are improving public services and demand better results if they believe local services are falling short of expectations. It will also give Chief Executive officers an opportunity to describe the hard choices and trade-offs involved in decision making.

Getting redress when things go wrong
Some housing associations already offer money back to tenants where they fail to carry repairs out on time. The government want to see if this could go further, with redress for citizens when council services go wrong. The government will establish a review into redress for citizens that will report in 2009.

Giving local people a direct say on how budgets are spent
The government want every area of the country to have a 'community kitty' scheme - a pot of money that local people can decide how to spend. Local people should have a say in setting priorities for local budgets - for example if they want to see more community wardens or better street lighting. Government departments are also committed to citizens having a bigger say over youth and community safety spending.

£70m Communitybuilders fund
Community-led third sector organisations are one of the most tangible and popular ways people get involved and start to actively give something back to their local communities. The government will be investing £70m in organisations that are the backbone of their communities. This will help strong community groups acquire buildings, take a role in running local services, and become more financially self sustainable.

Local people running local assets
Street markets, community centres and swimming pools will be handed over to local residents if they can do a better job of running them than councils. 30 new pilots will get underway shortly and a new Asset Transfer Unit will be established to support community groups making the most of buildings and resources.

Making it easier for people to get a directly elected mayor
Mayors provide visible local leadership and have the potential to engage more people in politics.  The government will consult on allowing on-line petitioning as well as paper petitions to be counted towards support for a referendum for a mayor. The government will consult on reducing the number of people needed to trigger a referendum from 5 per cent to perhaps 2 per cent, 3 per cent or 4 per cent and change existing rules that mean no referendum can be held for 10 years if referendum is lost.

Promoting democracy
A new duty will be placed on local authorities to promote democracy. Local leaders will be expected to do more to help residents understand how the democratic process works and how they can get involved. Residents can expect to see information campaigns and town halls being opened up to councillors to hold surgeries. New 'civic champions' - council staff or former councillors who will go out into the community and work with residents and community groups to increase understanding about how they can raise awareness about civic roles they can take up - whether that's volunteering, standing as a governor, a councillor or becoming a magistrate.

Empowering young people
More needs to be done to make politics and local services relevant and open to young people. The government will establish a programme for young people to shadow government ministers and elected mayors, develop a programme of internships with local councillors and increase the number of young people who help councils and others understand the impact of their policies on the young

 

 

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