Issue details

The Bill would devolve greater powers to councils and neighbourhoods and give local communities control over housing and planning decisions.

The main benefits of the Bill would be:

·                      Empowering local people.

·                      Freeing local government from central and regional control.

·                      Giving local communities a real share in local growth.

·                      A more efficient and more local planning system.

The main elements of the Bill are:

·                      Abolish Regional Spatial Strategies.

·                      Return decision-making powers on housing and planning to local councils.

·                      Abolish the Infrastructure Planning Commission and replace it with an efficient and democratically accountable system that provides a fast-track process for major infrastructure projects.

·                      New powers to help save local facilities and services threatened with closure, and give communities the right to bid to take over local state-run services.

·                      Abolish the Standards Board regime.

·                      Give councils a general power of competence.

·                      Require public bodies to publish online the job titles of every member of staff and the salaries and expenses of senior officials.

·                      Give residents the power to instigate local referendums on any local issue and the power to veto excessive council tax increases.

·                      Greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups.

·                      Create Local Enterprise Partnerships (to replace Regional Development Agencies) – joint local authority-business bodies brought forward by local authorities to promote local economic development.

·                      Form plans to deliver a genuine and lasting Olympic legacy.

·                      Outright abolition of Home Improvement Packs.

·                      Create new trusts that would make it simpler for communities to provide homes for local people.

·                      Review Housing Revenue Account (see also Government Review of Council Housing Finance: Proposals to Replace Housing Revenue Account Subsidy System).

Existing legislation in this area is:

This would be a major piece of legislation that would affect a wide range of existing housing, planning and local government legislation dating back decades in some cases.