The Department of Communities and Local Government will be publishing the Localism Bill today. Given a fair wind, this should pass into law next July, though, no doubt, with certain provisions to be brought into operation later. In advance, the Department has issued a guide. Labour has already signalled it will attack the concept of the “Big Society”, and certainly we need to be reassured that the third sector will have sufficient resources to play their part in the decentralisation of many functions, but there are other worthwhile features. A brief scan highlights:

• The Standards Board regime – The Bill will abolish this costly, centrally-imposed regime, allowing councils to devise their own regimes to govern propriety and behaviour and empowering local people to hold their elected representatives to account.
• The ‘predetermination’ rules – The Bill will end the absurd situation where councillors are prevented from acting on local issues because of the risk of challenge that they are biased. [This “fettering” has been very contentious in Neath Port Talbot. The inability of local councillors to vote against power station developments in particular has caused much grief.]

• General Power of Competence – The Bill will give local authorities a General Power of Competence, allowing them to do anything which is not specifically prohibited by law. This will set them free to innovate in response to local needs.
• Community right to buy – The Bill will give communities powers to save local assets threatened with closure, by allowing them to bid for the ownership and management of community assets.
• Neighbourhood plans – The Bill will radically reform the planning system to give local people new rights to shape the development of the communities in which they live. Business rate discounts – The Bill will give local authorities the power to grant a discount in business rates, enabling them to respond locally to the concerns of local businesses.
• Community Infrastructure Levy – The Bill will require local authorities to allocate a proportion of Community Infrastructure Levy revenues back to the neighbourhood from which it was raised. This will allow those most directly affected by development to benefit from it.

There are other measures which affect only England.

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