The right to very little at all: NCIA submits evidence to House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee

The Localism Act 2011 offers communities a set of new ‘rights’. They may now challenge councils to run public services, bid for ‘assets of community value’, build local facilities and make statutory neighbourhood plans.  As an added sweetener, the government has earmarked £52m to help communities fund these ventures.  But are community rights all they’re cut out to be?  Not on the basis of evidence that shows them to be fraught with red tape and a postcode lottery that invariably favours well-heeled areas.  There’s also the minor matter that the Coalition’s infrastructure laws strip communities of their right to challenge fracking, nuclear proliferation and high speed rail.

The cross-party Communities and Local Government Select Committee has launched an inquiry into these so-called rights. Laird Ryan’s submission on behalf of the NCIA offers a detailed critique of why community rights fail to deliver, and sets out alternatives for a system that’s far more equitable and effective.  The Committee has accepted our submission and published it on their website – here

Keep up to date with our defence of community rights and the other work we’re doing on localism at Localism Watch www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/collections/localismwatch#0, or contact Laird at lairdryan@bignall.free-online.co.uk