As the Localism Bill starts its scrutiny in the House of Lords and the government promises a ‘Big Society’ Bill, councils are in the frontline of the coalition’s fight to deliver more effective public services. In return for scaling back budgets there needs to be the potential for a much stronger and independent position for councils in the future. The Localism Bill is a welcome piece of legislation but there are, however, a number of areas that we and our colleagues at Hammersmith and Fulham, Wandsworth and Kensington and Chelsea would like to see amended or changed. In particular: A new community right to challenge and buy should be granted to councils. Local authorities should be empowered to challenge quangos or other public agencies over the right to run services in their area.On referendums, the threshold whereby residents having signed a petition can trigger a referendum should be 10%. Similarly, a minimum turnout of 25% of an area for the outcome of the referendum to be valid should be put in place.Councils should be given greater freedoms around the setting of fines for breaches of planning enforcement while the requirement to list all planning applications in newspapers should be removed. Councils could make sizable savings if they were allowed to advertise online.On housing, councils should be empowered to prevent homelessness in the first place while there should also be greater freedoms around rent setting and a more consistent approach to the issuing of social housing tenancies. Finally Westminster Council is seeking separate clarification on the use of the general power of competence – in particular whether local authorities will be permitted to issue derivatives under this new power. There is much to welcome in the localism bill and local government will need to take on the new freedoms with imagination and competence. Along with our neighbouring councils, and for the benefit of the whole of local government we hope that ministers will take on board and act on our concerns. We believe our amends our necessary if government is serious about handing over power to councils who are best placed to act in the interests of their local communities. It will be interesting to see how the debate goes over the next few weeks.
