Sustainable Communities Act - Update
18th February 2010
The LGA has been acting as the selector panel for incoming proposals from local authorities.
The short list of proposals submitted to the Secretary of State (SoS), submitted last December was published in January and can be viewed on the LGA web site at - http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/aio/6820540
The selector panel received 315 proposals, these were either (number in brackets):
1) acceptable to the panel, and were forwarded to the Secretary of State (184)
2) could be done anyway without SoS intervention - these were referred back to councils (55)
3) referred back to the Local Authority because they had an incomplete consultation process - if this was then completed in time some proposals were added to the list (11)
4) were considered by the panel to be not viable or credible (65)
The proposals fell into 11 main categories:
supporting communities during a recession
> reforming the local government
> finance system
> tackling climate change locally
> supporting cleaner and greener
> localities
> waste minimisation and disposal
> using the planning and regulatory
> system to support local communities
> more effective transport systems
> empowering communities and
> supporting engagement
> delivering on housing
> delivering effective local services
> safer and stronger communties
This was an amazing response from Councils considering the period for submission of proposals coincided with last year's election campaign. The Secretary of state has to "reach agreement" on the proposals with the LGA, but at the time of writing there has not been a response to the shortlist, beyond a meeting with the Chair of the SCA panel. we are hoping for a response before the General Election, or at least a promise to respond to the proposals as soon as possible after the election.