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Communities and local government secretary, Hazel Blears, is set to announce a new White Paper on democracy and community engagement, The MJ has learned. The White Paper will implement some of the proposals put forward by the report from the Councillors' Commission, headed by Dame Jane Roberts. In it, the Government is expected to dismiss parachute payments and term limits for councillors, but other recommendations will make it into a local government Bill in the next Queen's Speech. And Ms Blears hinted at an event organised by The MJ on the Councillors' Commission last week that councils could face a new duty to promote democracy. Due to the elections in May, the White Paper is unlikely to be published before mid-May, but will have to come before summer parliamentary recess. Then the CLG will need to work with other government departments to get any cross-departmental issues sorted out, before the Bill is drafted in the autumn. Democracy expert and director of the Political Skills Forum, Paul Wheeler, told The MJ he would like to see councils becoming a ‘strong advocate' of local democracy in the White Paper, and for a civic leadership strategy from central and local government. Mr Wheeler also claimed he wished to see the paper ‘recognising local politics is a team sport'. At The MJ breakfast event last week in Westminster, Ms Blears claimed party politics was ‘a core business' to democracy and said she was ‘interested in the idea' of introducing a duty on councils to promote democracy, adding: ‘There's a lack of confidence by councils about politics, and we need a dramatic culture change. Once one has a duty, then it will be measured in the CPA or CAA, and that's a powerful set of levers.' She also said she would contact Tesco chief executive, Sir Terry Leahy, to persuade him, as an employer, to encourage staff to stand as councillors. Ms Blears spent three days working at Tesco in a back-to-the-floor initiative when she chaired the Labour Party. A CLG spokesman declined to confirm whether the department was planning a White Paper but Whitehall insiders have told The MJ it was expected to be announced in the next week or two.

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WHITEHALL

New White Paper is expected 'in weeks'

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