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Sustainable Communities Bill

Local MP takes his law through the House of Commons

Nick Hurd has successfully steered his Private Member's Bill through the House of Commons. The Sustainable Communities Bill passed its Third Reading in the Commons and is currently being debated in the House of Lords with the support of the Government.

The Bill is a response to concern about the community decline that follows the loss of key local services such as post offices; bank branches and community shops. Its main effect will be to give local communities a much greater say over their development. The Bill has cross party support with organisations as diverse as the Womens Institute and the Campaign for the Protection of Real Ale leading the campaign for the Bill.

In his closing remarks at Third Reading, the Minister for Local Government Phil Woolas MP said that the Bill will “contribute enormously to British Politics”.

Mr Hurd said: 'When it comes to shaping the future of the communities we live in, we must accept local people know best. We must give them greater power over the policy and spending decisions that will shape the future of the area they live in. This Bill is an honest attempt to help communities address the social problems that arise from loss of local services, a threat that we are facing in shopping centres like Joel Street in Northwood Hills.”

What is it?

At the start of each Parliamentary session, MPs put their name in a hat for the chance to introduce their own piece of legislation. The chances of coming top of the ballot are very small, and I was fortunate enough to come top. I chose to introduce the Sustainable Communities Bill.

The Bill aims to give local people much greater power over the way in which taxpayers’ money is spent in their community. It will also require local and central government to attach greater priority to the long term development and protection of communities.

What problems does the Bill address?

Decline in communities - high streets; post offices; civic participation; environmental degradation.
Lack of coherent Government strategy to address that decline.
Lack of transparency in the way that resources are allocated to communities.

How will it do this?

The best way to explain this is through an example. An illustration of how the Bill would work would be to look at Kent. Approximately £8billion of taxpayers’ money is spent there each year. £2billion is spent by local government, whereas £6billion is spent directly by central government organisations and quangos, such as the Environment Agency or the Learning and Skills Council.

The Bill would work in the following way:

It would give local authorities the right to receive a breakdown of expenditure by Central Government departments and agencies on services provided for benefit of local communities.
Local Authorities then have the right to go back to the Secretary of State with an alternative, local spending plan. The local spending plan must have been drawn up after full local consultation and must be disclosed to public. They must have regard to the promotion of the sustainability of local communities.
The Secretary of State must take a decision on these local spending plans and . the reasons for any amendments must be made public.
Once approved, the Secretary of State must implement local spending plan, having consulted with the relevant central government departments and agencies. The Secretary of State must also publish a report each year on progress in the implementation of the local spending plan.

The Bill would also require Central Government to publish long term action plans (10 years) to promote sustainability of local communities. It gives every resident the right to make recommendations for that action plan through their principal council. It will require the Government to give reasons for not accepting any recommendations made by the principal councils.

Background:

The Bill is the culmination of a four year campaign which has the support of 20, 000 individual supporters; 74 national organisations (including Local Works, Age Concern, Help the Aged and Charter 88), 300 local organisations; 1000 parish councils; the Conservative and Liberal Groups on the LGA and 363 MPs who signed EDM 641 in the last Parliament. Critically this includes 174 Labour MPs.

Your Priorities:

I would like to hear what your local priorities are. If you were able to change how Central Government spent their money, where would you spend it? Email me at hurdn@parliament.uk or write to me at House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA