Today, I am updating Parliament on the Government’s plans to review governance arrangements for local authorities in England. Our goal is to ensure that local communities have the right mechanisms to engage effectively with their councils.
In the English Devolution White Paper, the Government committed to establishing consistent and accountable structures across local government. We are considering which governance models available to local authorities will best support their decision-making processes and will provide more detail on this shortly.
The English Devolution White Paper also committed to creating new opportunities for communities to have a say in the future of their area and to play a part in improving it. To support this, we will review how local authorities can integrate community engagement into their core functions. We are keen to work with the sector to co-design an approach which balances the need for consistent structures with local flexibility.
This programme of reform will create fewer but more empowered councils, frontline councillors and partners working hand in glove with the communities they serve, and support preventative and early intervention approaches, which are critical to the sustainability of local government and in driving better outcomes in the neighbourhoods where local people are invested. Local people will know exactly where to take local problems and solutions, and can work with their frontline councillors to drive visible improvements in the places they are invested in.
When these reforms are implemented, alongside devolution to new regional mayors and strategic authorities, and local government reorganisation, they will ensure that the right powers are in the right places. Locally, they will mean that people across England, regardless of where they live, will be able to take issues or concerns to empowered frontline local councillors. These councillors will have a clear and accountable route to act on them, either through neighbourhood structures or by taking them to the cabinet member responsible for the issue.
Every place will benefit from our agenda to decentralise power from Whitehall to local leaders. People will see the impact in more regular bus services, more affordable housing, and the presence of local champions with regional influence or frontline councillors championing their neighbourhoods.
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