Sustainable Communities Bill

The Sustainable Communities Bill is a Private Member's Bill currently making its way through the British parliamentary system. The Sustainable Communities Bill represents the culmination of efforts by the campaign group Local Works to introduce legislation that will help reverse the trend called 'Ghost Town Britain'. Ghost Town Britain refers to the ongoing loss of local facilities and services including amongst others: shops, markets, post offices, pubs, banks and health centres. The term 'Ghost Town Britain' was initially coined by the British think-tank New Economics Foundation in their 2002 report.

How the Bill will work
The Sustainable Communities Bill will work by giving increasing devolved powers that local council representatives have to empower them to solve the problems within their local communities. Central government will be required by law to provide for the implementation of local sustainability strategies that communities will be invited to draw up themselves together with their councils. Importantly, this new process will be participatory not consultative.

Under the Bill local sustainability has these 4 measurements:

1. thriving local economies

2. environmental protection

3. social inclusion

4. active democratic participation

Councils will be given funding from central government to make sure that all people in their communities are able to participate in the new bottom-up process. This is based on the idea of social justice, with access to democracy and community development being a right of every citizen under the Bill.

The local sustainability strategies will state ways in which community decline is to be reversed and local sustainability is to be created. This could include measures to promote local shops and services, local jobs and local businesses; measures to reduce social exclusion and increase active citizenship; as well as measures to improve the local environment.

Local people will be able to set targets for these measures, or even introduce new measures and indicators, and these may differ from area to area. There may even be local referenda on issues such as whether a new superstore should be built.

Video
Julia Goldsworthy MP on the Sustainable Communities Bill, just under 2 mins. XadxEMSThKs

Related topics

 * Local needs met locally, UK