COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENT News Release (052) issued by The Government News Network
on 5 March 2008
Communities
Secretary Hazel Blears has today announced radical plans to unlock
talent in local communities and give people a real say on
improving local services and promoting active citizenship.
Speaking at a regeneration conference in central London, Hazel
Blears unveiled plans for a new White Paper focused on empowering citizens.
Local government is working much better than in previous years.
However, a new survey reveals that:
* Six in ten people do not feel they are given an adequate say on
how local council services are run;
* More than 9 in 10 people believe accountability of councils
could be improved;
* Nearly four in 10 people do not feel councillors are
representative of their communities and six in 10 do not believe
they adequately reflect their views.
The new White Paper will aim to reverse this trend. Working with
local councils and community organisations, it will help to put
more communities in control. Local people will have new
opportunities to reconnect with their councils and to provide
input to improve local services. To do this, the White Paper will
be built around four key pillars:
* improving deprived areas through regeneration and promoting
work and enterprise
* encouraging active citizenship and reviving civic society and
local democracy
* improving local public services
* strengthening local accountability
Speaking today Hazel Blears said 'citizens from Penrith to
Penzance' must be given more opportunities to influence
decisions affecting their local services.
The White paper is expected to be published in the summer and
will seek to respond to challenges such as rising expectations of
service delivery and significant social and demographic changes.
A launch document Unlocking the Talent of our Communities that
has been published today outlines the many opportunities for
people to contribute their views on policy development either by
email, letter or through an online discussion forum.
Hazel Blears will say:
"Local Government has been transformed in recent years. But
if we want to deal successfully with today's new challenges,
from climate change to childhood obesity, then we must learn
lessons and look at what more we can do to put more communities in
control. Change goes deeper and lasts longer when people can take
control of it - rather than having it imposed on them. There are
few problems that British communities cannot solve for themselves
- if only their talent and ingenuity can be unleashed.
"Today marks the start of a national debate and I want to
hear from the Great British public about what more we can do to
reinvigorate the grass roots of local democracy, to encourage
active citizenship, and to enable people to connect with their
local leaders. We need a little less social engineering, and a
lot more social enterprise, and I look forward to hearing thoughts
on how we get there."
The White Paper launch document Unlocking the Talent of our
Communities sets out the challenges in four key areas:
Regeneration and promoting work and enterprise:
Building on the announcement of £1.5 billion from the Working
Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) to 65 local authority areas identified
as facing particularly significant challenges, the White Paper
will seek to answer two key questions:
* How can government at all levels work together to tackle
worklessness and promote enterprise in the most deprived areas?
* What are the best means of focusing regeneration on people as
well as infrastructure?
Encouraging active citizenship, and reviving civic society and
local democracy
Local government in England is working better. But there is a
drop in the percentage of people who think they can influence
local decisions. The age profile of councillors is rising and
they are not always fully representative of their communities.
We need to encourage a greater sense of 'active
citizenship' and harness new technology to facilitate greater
civic participation and political involvement at the local level.
The Empowerment White Paper will look at what steps need to be
taken to revive involvement in local civic and democratic roles
and incorporate government responses to the Councillors commission report.
Improving local public services
We need services to become more personalised, but this requires
considerable changes over the next decade, and the direct
involvement of consumers in the design and delivery.
Services will also need to find new ways of engaging with users
and providing better information. They will also be subject to
greater local scrutiny.
The White Paper will look at how the power of consumers can be
better used to improve local services and how social housing
tenants can be given 'more choice and voice'.
Strengthening local accountability
Traditional civic institutions will need, increasingly, to be
more responsive and relevant to all people. We need to encourage
strong and visible local leadership as well as providing more
opportunities for communities to influence decisions.
Issues the Empowerment White Paper will seek to answer are what
more is needed to encourage consistently strong local leadership
and how best can we increase opportunities for communities to hold
local public officials and representatives to account.
Notes to Editors
This press notice applies to England
1. The White Paper Launch document Unlocking the Talent of our
Communities can be viewed at http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/unlockingtalent
2. The survey referred to in para 3 of the above news release was
a poll carried out by Communities and Local Government to measure
the extent to which people feel involved in local decision-making.
The results of this poll can be viewed at http://www.communities.gov.uk/unlockingtalent
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