A new report by the think tank Onward argues that the government’s planned reforms to “empower local leaders and communities” and “restore civic pride” in the forthcoming Levelling Up White Paper should not be limited to metro mayors and county deals, but also include a radical expansion of neighbourhood control through local (parish and town) councils.
To achieve this the report Double Devo: Extending town and parish councils‘ proposes three key reforms:
- Let the people decide: by introducing an automatic ballot alongside local elections to ask people in every local area currently without a local council whether they want to establish one, remove the ability of local authorities to overturn a decision in favour, and make the establishment of local councils a condition of unitarisation.
- Strengthen the quality of governance in local councils: by requiring that every local council be two-thirds elected and ensuring that 25% of revenue from the planned Infrastructure Levy goes to local councils.
- Deepen the role of neighbourhood councils, by giving them the ability to “pull-down” responsibility for neighbourhood functions from the local authority if they believe they could do a better job.
Cllr Sue Baxter, NALC chair, said: “I strongly welcome this excellent and timely report by Onward as it rightly recognises the important part that England’s 10,000 local (parish and town) councils play in providing local leadership and place-shaping to build strong, thriving and resilient communities. And as the report rightly argues, there is currently a huge opportunity to build on the growing role of our most local level of governance to help the country and our communities tackle the significant challenges we all face. This is why I would urge the government to use the opportunity of the forthcoming levelling up and recovery white paper to take forward many of the proposals in this report and empower local councils to level up and rebuild our communities".
Will Tanner, director of Onward, said: "The evidence is clear that town and parish councils have a demonstrable impact on the strength of local communities and the prosperity of local communities. But just two-fifths of England benefits from this form of local governance, and many of the most deprived communities still rely on distant district councils or unitary governments to fix their problems. A simple way for Ministers to level up would be to extend town and parish councils throughout England, and deepen their powers to allow local people to take greater ownership of their destiny".