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News

New Community Empowerment Bill to harness petition power

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has outlined plans to give every citizen in England three new rights to have a greater say to trigger action on local issues they care about. These could range from directing more money from councils to tackle anti-social behaviour and graffiti, to taking over the running of local assets like community or leisure centres, or forcing a public debate on local issues they are concerned about.
The UK is one of the biggest petition signing countries in Europe and the World and Ministers are to harness this as a key way of giving local people more say.

Hazel Blears set out early details of a new Community Empowerment, Housing and Economic regeneration Bill expected later this year that would harness 'petition power' and enable local people to trigger action and influence decisions on local services and issues they care about in three new key ways. These are:

• A new right to ask for a stronger say on spending decisions that affect them or their communities. This could mean for example asking councils to direct more money from multi-million pound budgets on tackling drug dealing on estates, more community wardens and facilities like more skateboard parks or youth clubs.
• A new right to ensure councils consider the sale or transfer of under-used properties, lands or parks to local community groups, co-ops and social enterprises. So a disused shopping or community centre could be handed over to local people to ensure publicly owned assets properly benefit local people rather than just being left redundant.
• A new right to force a debate on specific local issues onto the council agenda. So if local people are unhappy with the closure of a local swimming pool or the standard of local housing they can hold their council to account by forcing a debate to get action on the issue.

The Community Empowerment Bill is a key part of Prime Minister's vision set out yesterday in the Draft Legislative Programme to deliver a fairer Britain and hand more power back to local people. It is central to the Prime Minister's new vision to devolve more power to the communities as part of 'a reinvention of the way we govern.' It will also help in increasing the personalisation of local services by giving people a greater say and influence on decisions.

Ahead of her speech this afternoon to Local Authority representatives, Hazel Blears this morning visited a flagship example of how communities could revive derelict sites into thriving facilities that they could own and run. South Bank's social enterprise and development trust, 'Coin Street Community Builders', kick started by local residents in 1984 transformed a largely derelict 13 acre site back in 1984 into a now thriving mixed-use neighbourhood.
Source: communities.gov.uk

ICELE ePetitions Day

ICELE is hosting a FREE event in conjunction with London Connects and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames to explore the theme of local ePetitioning. Find out more!