Sustainable Communities Bill

My Lords, I am delighted to speak on behalf of the Government to support the Sustainable Communities Bill. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Marlesford, on bringing forward the Bill, and I add my congratulations to those of the noble Lord, Lord Hurd of Westwell, to the honourable Member for Ruislip Northwood. It is an achievement for a Member of another place to bring a Bill forward so successfully, achieve such a high level of cross-party support and find a Minister in the House of Lords speaking in support of a Private Member’s Bill. The Government believe the Bill can help in our efforts to engage and empower communities, strengthen local democracy and devolve real power to local authorities, their local partners and their residents. The Government have always supported the main aspiration of the Sustainable Communities Bill, which is to promote the sustainability of local communities. Indeed, the Government can claim to be the original author of the concept of ““sustainable communities””. Strong and Prosperous Communities - the Local Government White Paper contains a powerful set of measures which give local people and local communities more power to influence their lives. I am sure that we all accept that the Bill, as it was introduced to Parliament, was, as its sponsor put it, ““honest but imperfect””. While we supported the Bill’s main aspiration, we felt that in operation it would, or could, have been impractical. We were therefore pleased to work very closely over several months with the honourable Member for Ruislip Northwood and the Bill’s other sponsors, including my honourable friend David Drew MP, Julia Goldsworthy MP, and Local Works who have done so much over a number of years to bring the Bill to this stage. Our objective throughout was to strengthen the Bill so that it could be used in a positive and constructive way while ensuring that it dovetailed with government policy and its backers’ aspirations. We believe that that has been achieved and that the Bill which is now before the House of Lords is substantially improved from the Bill that entered the Commons. There are two elements of the Bill that I shall highlight today as substantial steps forward in moving power from the centre to local communities. We have had an interesting and important debate today, and we had it in the context of the local government Bill that is in Committee. The first aspect is that we have strengthened the dialogue between central and local government. Under the Sustainable Communities Bill, there will be a formal channel through which ideas that come from communities can be presented to central government through a body that represents democratically elected councils; namely, the Local Government Association. Central government will be required to co-operate with that body in drawing up a shortlist of proposals to consider. That will enable the role of the LGA and the existing central local partnership to be strengthened. The Government welcome that. The second aspect of the Bill that I shall highlight is that it provides a mechanism—local spending reports, to which noble Lords have already referred—that for the first time will map the public funding which goes into each local authority area. We believe that this resource mapping will strengthen local democracy and enhance the operation of the new local area agreements by ensuring that there is greater accountability and transparency in funding. Many noble Lords referred to the importance of this aspect, and I echo their comments. It will enable local authorities, their partners and communities to take better informed decisions about the priorities that they choose to pursue to promote the sustainability of their local community. The Government have a strong and successful track record in this area. They have already brought forward a series of powerful measures to promote sustainable communities. For example, the Local Government Act 2000 gives local authorities broader power to do anything that they consider is likely to achieve the promotion or improvement of the economic, social and environmental well-being of their area. There is much more that local authorities could do to make the most of that power. The same Local Government Act also requires local authorities, in consultation with their local partners, to prepare a community strategy for their area that has sustainable development at its heart. The Government have taken the opportunity presented by the Sustainable Communities Bill to rename these strategies in statute as ““sustainable community strategies””. That reflects their core importance in promoting the sustainability of local communities. Although the Delegated Powers Committee has identified an issue here, we have thought very carefully about it and weighed up the importance of giving the Bill a fair wind. In the light of that, we are prepared to indicate clearly that we will not bring forward amendments to the Bill. Strong and Prosperous Communities, the local government White Paper, and the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill contain a series of powerful measures. Our intention is to devolve and decentralise, to strengthen local democracy and community governance and to give people a real say in how their communities are run. Devolving power to communities and their locally elected representatives is the best way further to improve local services and promote the sustainability of local communities. I shall not go through the measures in the Bill because many of us in the Chamber are involved in the Committee stage of the local government Bill, on which we are having important discussions. However, devolving governance is just one of the ways in which we are strengthening resident and community involvement through our implementation of Strong and Prosperous Communities. Another way is community empowerment, by which we mean giving confidence, skills and power to communities to influence what public bodies do for or with them. My right honourable friend Hazel Blears has championed that in particular. Our vision for empowerment is to allow local flexibility. Local authorities know best how to reach their citizens and communities and will want to adopt a range of different approaches to empowerment depending on their circumstances. We do not want to prescribe; we want to work with partners to build on what they know about effective practice and to encourage its use. This Government’s view is that democracy should be about much more than casting a vote every few years. Local people know the needs of their area better than anyone. This Government are delivering a real shift in power to town halls and ensuring that town halls pass it on to local communities. At Second Reading of the local government Bill, I sensed a consensus that that Bill was very much about devolution. I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Bruce-Lockhart, that the Prime Minister is very much behind this approach. He has spoken clearly this week of his vision for a, "““reinvention of the way we govern””," promoting ““the active citizen”” and ““the empowered community”” and building ““open enabling government””. It is equally clear that this will be one of the Prime Minister’s main priorities. In recent weeks he has spoken of local democracy, strengthened by citizens’ forums and new citizens’ juries, where citizens and their representatives have had a chance to fully debate the concerns that matter to them. Last week he spoke of enhancing representative democracy by devolving more power directly to the people, and launched a debate on a series of specific proposals that would bring this about. The noble Lord, Lord Cameron, asked a specific question about the Bill. While it is not my role to answer on behalf of the mover of the Bill, I want to make a point from the Government’s perspective about whether local spending reports go down to the parish level. In Clause 6(4) the area of the local spending report can be, "““one or more parts of a local authority area””." We will consult as the Bill requires on the approach to be adopted. The time has come for the idea of sustainable communities. Our local government White Paper, the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill, and the Prime Minister’s recent statements confirm the Government’s commitment to devolution and community empowerment. The Sustainable Communities Bill clearly pushes in the same direction. I am confident that the Government support it taking forward. I confirm that the Government do not intend to amend the Bill and we look forward to continuing the work of the Bill’s supporters and working with them to bring the aims of the Bill to fruition. The noble Lord, Lord Marlesford, was very kind to suggest that my right honourable friends Hilary Benn and Hazel Blears would be committed to taking forward the aspirations of this Bill. I believe that they will be. With that, I am delighted to confirm once more the Government’s support for the Bill.