The Localism Bill

The Localism Bill, which is the government’s flagship planning and local government Bill, was introduced in Parliament on 13 December 2010 and is due to have its second reading debate on 17 January 2011. Here is a brief summary of the provisions of the Bill. Bircham Dyson Bell will be producing more detailed analysis of various aspects of the Bill following the second reading debate.

Local authority powers - flexibility

Local authorities are given a general power of competence to do anything that an individual can do, with certain restrictions;
Local authorities can abandon the cabinet system and return to the committee system if they wish to;
Councillors are freer to talk on issues that they are involved in deciding;
The Standards Board for England is abolished;
Regional strategies are abolished;
Planning inspectors can no longer make binding recommendations about development plan policies.

Local authority powers - other

Councillors must publish senior council officers’ pay;
Referendums on directly-elected mayors to be held in England’s twelve largest cities outside London;
Fines for breaches of EU obligations can be levied from local authorities;
Re-applying for planning permission while enforcement action is being taken can be prevented;
Local authorities can require landowners to remove graffiti on their land;
'Bin taxes’ are abolished;
There are reforms of housing allocations, social housing tenure, and housing finance;
In London, the Mayor takes over the London Development Agency and the London part of the Homes and Communities Agency;
The Mayor can set up Mayoral development areas and corporations, and must produce an Environmental Strategy.

People power

Non-binding referendums are to be held if a single councillor or 5% of the electorate petition for one;
Excessive’ council tax rises will require approval by referendum;
A community body can seek to take over council services (‘the community right to challenge’);
A community interest group can seek to buy an ‘asset of community value’ when it is put up for sale;
Parish councils or neighbourhood groups of three or more people can hold referendums to create ‘neighbourhood development orders’ that automatically grant planning permission – one type of neighbourhood development order is a ‘community right to build order’;
Such groups can also hold referendums to create ‘neighbourhood development plans’ that set out planning policies for an area;
Developers will have to carry out pre-application consultation for large developments.

Infrastructure

The regime for planning and authorisation of nationally significant infrastructure projects is modified, with two main changes:

The Infrastructure Planning Commission is replaced by the Major Infrastructure Planning Unit of the Planning Inspectorate and decision-making is carried out by the government;
National Policy Statements are able to be vetoed by the House of Commons.

Public authorities