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Sustainable Communities Act

 

A chance for change – a new opportunity to improve your community

A new law called the Sustainable Communities Act, launched in 2008, provides local councils and local communities with the opportunity to ask national government to devolve more power to councils to improve the sustainability of local areas.

Each year national government will be asking local councils to submit ideas on how it can help councils improve the sustainability of their area.

Warrington Borough Council has 'opted in' to the Sustainable Communities Act which gives people the opportunity to come up with proposals to improve the place where they live. We would like to hear your ideas.

What type of proposals will be considered?
Any proposal submitted must need action from national government and must, therefore, be something that the council cannot already do.

Your proposal must seek to improve the 'sustainability' of your local community. Four aspects of sustainability are covered by the act and your idea needs to fall into one or more of them:

1. Economic - for example:

  • provision of local jobs and services through keeping post offices open by directing government subsidies to the local authority
  • ensure appropriate new development by transferring power over local planning matters from regional government offices to local councils

2. Social - for example:

  • increasing supply of affordable housing by returning 100% of council housing rents to the local authority area which they came from in order to fund new affordable housing
  • tackling unemployment by transferring responsibility for adult skills, training and apprenticeships from government quangos to councils

3. Environmental – for example:

  • promoting local food sources by giving business rate relief to those businesses that earn 50% of their turnover from selling local food and goods
  • promoting local energy and energy efficiency by removing some of the legal hurdles that councils face in establishing local energy generation schemes

4. Participation in civic or political activity – for example:

  • letting local people determine their council's governance structure by reintroducing the option of committee systems for decision making
  • give local people the power to vote on local issues by collecting enough signatures on a petition to call a local referendum

The act does not provide any additional funding from national government.

Who can submit a proposal?
Any individual or group can put forward a proposal to Warrington Borough Council. The expectation is that most proposals will come from community organisations, local branches of national organisations, parish councils, neighbourhood forums, residents and tenants associations, local strategic partnerships and other partnership bodies. As part of the process, the council would like to establish a dialogue with groups at an early stage to explore and make sure that their ideas will meet the criteria set by national government.

How do I submit a proposal?
We ask you to complete a very short proforma that will help the panel consider your idea.

Use our sustainable communities proposal form to send us your ideas.

If you require any help or would like to discuss an idea please contact Dave Shaw on (01925) 443866 – email: dshaw@warrington.gov.uk

What happens after the proposal is submitted?

1. Working together, the Warrington Partnership and the council will assemble a local panel. The panel must review the proposals and reach an agreement with the council about which proposals to submit to national government.

2. Following a decision on which proposals to submit, the council will put forward the agreed local ideas to the Local Government Association (LGA) which is collecting ideas from all the councils who ‘opted in’ to the act. The LGA will then decide which ideas should be put forward to the national government.

3. The Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government then must try to reach agreement with the Local Government Association on which proposals to implement.

When is the closing date?
All proposals must be received by Warrington Borough Council by 5 June 2009. Further calls for proposals will be issued by the Secretary of State on a regular basis (probably annually), so there will be further opportunities if you miss this deadline.

More information
We have produced a detailed set of frequently asked questions to help you decide whether or not to submit a proposal.

The Local Government Association has a section of their website dedicated to the Sustainable Communities Act, including an 'expression of interest' section to allow people to share ideas.

For further information about the act or to discuss your proposal please contact:

Dave Shaw, Corporate Policy and Performance Advisor
Chief Executive's Unit, Warrington Borough Council, Town Hall, Sankey Street, Warrington, WA1 1UH
Tel: (01925) 443866
Email: dshaw@warrington.gov.uk



Last updated 12/05/2009 16:09:07


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