Communities to be given local council assets
The government will publish a white paper in the summer allowing for communities to take over the running of local council assets such as swimming pools or disused land, politics.co.uk has learnt.
The white paper will be published by the department for communities and local government, and is thought to be Hazel Blears’ – local government secretary – brainchild.
Early reports indicate the proposals are intended to galvinise political participation in local communities and counter declining rates of political participation across the countries.
MPs have been watching the decline in voter turnout with increasing discomfort for some time now and noticing how such a situation often leads to increased support for far-right parties like the BNP.
Making an impassioned speech to the Social Market Foundation yesterday, Ms Blears said: “This growing alienation from politics explains the growing ‘voter strike’, but it also helps to explain other phenomena, from the election of BNP councillors, to the election of the ultimate anti-politician Boris Johnson in London.
“This is the reason why our politics doesn’t work: because people feel powerless. Because in too many situations, they are powerless.”
The government will hope to sell the idea of the white paper with the buzz-word ’empowerment’, saying their intention is to devolve power away from local councils to the people themselves.
“Public ownership in the old sense of being owned by the state is largely imagined, whereas public ownership via a local co-operatives or mutual ownership is real,” Ms Blears continued.
“One way to achieve this is the transfer of assets from local authority ownership to community ownership. These assets might include leisure centres, street markets, swimming pools, parks and land, as well as disused or derelict facilities such as a disused school, shop or pub.
“What asset transfer does is to create a new cadre of active citizens, owning, directing and running a service.
“It creates new co-operatives, mutuals and social enterprises. And it should also create a facility or service which is responsive to local need, reflects local ambitions, and which generates loyalty from the local community,” the local government secretary concluded.
Ms Blears also revealed she had spent three days stacking shelves in Tescos as part of an effort to understand the hopes and concerns of normal people. She suggested cabinet members should spend time listening to the needs of local people before attending cabinet meetings, and that the meeting should be rolled out so they take place all over the country.
Peter Facey, director of Unlock Democracy gave the proposals a mixed review.
Speaking to politics.co.uk he said: “There is much in this speech that is to be welcomed, although there is a risk that many of these initiatives could be counterproductive if handled poorly.
“The first big test of this new approach will be in how Ms Blears’ department rolls out the Sustainable Communities Act.
“From October, this Act will give local communities the right to demand exactly the sort of powers she suggests in this speech, but it will only be successful if local authorities grasp the opportunity with both hands and government adopts a constructive approach.”
