What is the Sustainable Communities Act?
This Act is based on the concept of ‘Ghost-town Britain’, which concerns the loss of small local businesses and community facilities, and the links between this and wider sustainability concerns. It was campaigned for by Local Works with the support of 80 national organisations, 300 local organisations and over 1,000 parish and town councils.
The Act aims “to promote the sustainability of local communities, by encouraging the economic, social and environmental well being of the area.”
How the Act works: The Act sets up a new process where local communities and their local authorities (District and County Councils) can drive central government policy on reversing community decline and promoting local sustainability.
Under this Act we can put forward proposals to the Government concerning the promotion of sustainable communities within our district - proposals can ask for a transfer of responsibilities and funding from one public body to another; a change in national legislation or policy; or a new piece of legislation or policy. As a Council we have to agree these proposals with a ‘panel of local representatives’ from our community. This ‘panel’ can also put forward proposals of their own, giving more power to local people. The government has a legal duty to assist us in promoting sustainable communities; there really is scope in this Act to give local communities a more sustainable future, whether it is providing more local jobs, renewable energy provision, or having a greater say in decision-making.
Read on to find out how we have raised proposals with our community to aim for a sustainable South Hams…
How South Hams District Council is implementing the Act:
- The council has recognised the South Hams Strategic Partnership’s Community Partnership Forum as its ‘panel of local representatives’. This Forum includes over 200 organisations, community groups and charities, including local town and parish councils from across the district. To find out more about the Community Partnership Forum and how your organisation, charity, or group can become a member please see our South Hams Strategic Partnership page.
- At an event arranged for all Community Partnership Forum members and District Councillors in February 2009, proposals aimed at promoting sustainable communities were raised and discussed. The purpose of this event was to agree together (council and community) a number of proposals that might be considered for submission to government. Attendees got to vote for their most popular proposals at the end of the event. The full list of all the proposals raised and the number of votes received can be found below.
Proposals raised and votes received.
- The proposals were short listed to the most popular voted proposals. These were defined as "all those proposals that received 10 votes or more". Some of the proposals and their votes were combined as they concerned similar topics and would require similar changes in government policy or legislation to happen. The short-list can be found below.
Shortlist.
- To make sure we start writing up the proposals in order of most importance to the people of South Hams, we have put the short-list into a survey of our Citizens Panel. The South Hams’ Citizens’ Panel ranked the proposals in terms of their importance to the wider local community. The top three proposals chosen by the Panel are:
- Save the Post Office Network.
- Second Homes Council Tax.
- Private Initiative Affordable Housing.
For a copy of the Survey and full list of results see Citizens' Panel Results (1.1MB pdf). The Citizens’ Panel is a demographically representative panel of approximately 1,000 local residents. To find out more about the Panel and previous surveys they have completed, please click here. This additional involvement of South Hams citizens ensured that we start to write-up and submit proposals that were of most importance not only to our community groups, charities, and local councils, but also to the wider community.
- Despite the short timescales, all eleven proposals short-listed at the Community Partnership Forum in February were approved by the Council and submitted to the LGA Selector Panel by the 31st July deadline:
Green Initiatives
Business Rate Relief for Local Procurement
Community Asset Transfer
Fully funded CVS
Safer Cycle Network
Greens Spaces Proposal
Private Initiative Affordable Housing
Post Office
Second Homes Council Tax
Integrated Health Impact Assessments
Local Renewable Energy Supply
- The LGA Selector Panel has now completed deliberations on the 301 proposals received under the first round of the Sustainable Communities Act. The Panel have submitted their report and the shortlist to the Secretary of State as required under the terms of the Act. The shortlist is available on the LGA website.
- 7 of the 11 proposals submitted to the LGA back in July 2009, have been short-listed to be considered by the Secretary of State, the most of any district council in England. The following 7 proposals raised by members of the SHSP’s Community Partnership Forum and supported by SHDC have been short-listed: the Post Office proposal, Business rate relief for local procurement, Local renewable energy, Adapting green spaces for climate change, ‘Green Initiatives’, ‘Private Initiative Affordable Housing’ and the ‘Community Asset Transfer’ proposal.
- The LGA Selector Panel have passed on their thanks to councils and their local communities for participating in the new SCA process. The Panel were impressed by the quality of the proposals received and the obvious time and effort devoted to developing them by both council members and officers and community groups and residents.
- Over the coming months the LGA will negotiate with the Government to push for the implementation of as many short-listed proposals as possible. The LGA are lobbying hard for this process to be concluded by Easter, when an action plan for implementing the chosen proposals will be published, alongside justification for those eliminated.
If you would like to know more about the Sustainable Communities Act, please visit the following sites:
