Finding the right structures

19th June 2006

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) welcomes the findings in the All Party Parliamentary Group on Community Governance's report 'Civic Engagement and Neighbourhood Governance - Which Structures Work', especially in trying to reach its objective to promote community governance are as an appropriate vehicle for democratic and civic renewal.

The National Association has long argued, as confirmed by the report, that there should be more localised units of governance with services and functions devolved from the principal authority tier (unitary, county or district councils) of local government. With that more power should be bestowed on this neighbourhood tier of government from central government.

NALC supports the five main recommendations of the report. They are as follows:

• An increase in the number of first tier (parish and town councils) authorities; particularly in urban areas.
• Removing the bar to set up first-tier authorities in London.
• More services currently undertaken by principal authorities to be devolved to neighbourhood units.
• First-tier authorities should have increased power of scrutiny and involvement in the decisions made by principal authorities.
• Councils should be able to spend money under the 'power of well-being' provision.

John Findlay, chief executive, NALC, commented that the debate around the future of local government is now centering on empowering local communities via parish and town councils and that the upcoming Local Government White Paper will confirm this.

He said: "The Local Government White Paper will see the pushing of powers and functions to the parish level. With this there will be the flexibility of allowing local communities to decide whether they want to take on extra powers and functions."

Cllr Ken Cleary, chairman of NALC, added: "This will be a crucial year for local government and should hopefully result in the mechanisms being put in place to bring about real change in local community governance."

 

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Notes for Editors

1. The National Association of Local Councils is the national representative body for 10,000 community, parish and town councils throughout England and Wales. In all, there are over 100,000 community, parish and town councillors throughout England and Wales. These councillors, who serve electorates ranging from small rural communities to major cities, are all independently elected. The councils have powers to raise their own funds through council tax. Community, parish and town councils provide employment for over 25,000 staff while their annual expenditure exceeds £400 million. Together, they can be identified as the nation's single most influential grouping of grassroots opinion-formers. Over 15 million people live in communities served by 10,000 community, parish and town councils nationally - this represents up to 30% of the population. Over 150 new community, parish and town councils have been created since 1997.

2. The 'Civic Engagement and Neighbourhood Governance - Which Structures Work?' report is published by The All Party Parliamentary Group on Governance (APPG). APPG is chaired by David Curry MP with Nick Raynsford MP as vice-chair and David Drew MP is secretary to the group. Secretariat support for the APPG is provided by the National Association of Local Councils.

Please click here for the full report

Contact: Michael Green. Email: Michael.green@nalc.gov.uk

For more information contact Alan Jones on 020 7290 0316/ alan.jones@nalc.gov.uk