Localism Bill Analysis

The cut and thrust of the Localism Bill looks set to focus on three main elements: transparency, accountability and, most prominently, devolved decision-making powers.

Devolved decision-making - Regional Spatial Strategies and Comprehensive Area Assessments will be consigned to the scrap-heap in a planning system shakeup that promises to be ruthlessly comprehensive in tackling ‘waste’ and centralised bureaucracy.

However, in spite of some over-zealous rhetoric and enthusiastic cuts of RDAs amongst other cross-Council organisations, do not expect ‘umbrella’ authorities to disappear entirely. The Conservatives Green Paper in early 2010 is clear in its assertion that it is uniformity in the application of planning procedures that is the enemy, not the administrative network itself.

Greg Clarke’s announcement this week regarding obligatory cooperation between Council’s on cross-boundary policy further acknowledges the limitations of localism as a panacea for the ills of Labour’s planning system. Elements of its ties to central government will quite necessarily and sensibly remain, and it would be a mistake to assume that some of the slash and burn rhetoric flying around parliamentary press conferences will translate into concrete legislative proposals.

Accountability - Unelected regional bodies will almost certainly go in their entirety, with Local Authority Leader Boards the first to feel the sharp end of the Localism agenda. The proposal of a democratically elected Infrastructure Unit will be of particular interest to developers involved with Transport projects, who may find political motivation begins to play a greater role in securing project approval and funding. The power for residents to instigate local referendums on ‘any local issue’ will prove a thorny topic, and is likely to be dropped at least in part if the coalition is to avoid stalling development further following the standoff that has emerged since Eric Pickles letter to Councils on 27th May.

Transparency - There is a real appetite for Council boss salaries in particular to be exposed, a desire that has verged on blood-lust in the local press since the Coalition’s formation brought with it a sense of opportunity for radical reform. Councils will publish the names and wages of salaried staff members, as (in all likelihood) will the vast majority of all other publicly funded bodies.


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Speculation over the Localism Bill’s contents will doubtless continue until it is first tabled in Westminster in September (a date that will be subject to the successful passage of George Osborne’s emergency budget). The potential disparity between the ‘localism’ of Conservative rhetoric and the Bill’s legislative program is certainly there, although one suspects that by and large the Localism Bill will deliver, at least in part, on the Conservative’s program of greater flexibility and civil engagement in local government. Whether the Coalition’s legislative program will have its desired effects, on the other hand, remains to be seen.......