Tag Archives: localism

Don Foster MP writes… Local communities say ‘Yes’ to locally-led housebuilding

By Don Foster MP | Wed 8th May 2013 - 3:55 pm

Amid all the excitement of the local elections, two results of polls on the same day may have passed you by. While in many parts of the country voters were electing local councillors, in Thame in Oxfordshire and in the St.James area of Exeter voters were deciding whether to accept or reject locally developed Neighbourhood Plans.

Like many Liberal Democrats I was anxious to see how well we did in the council elections. But as Minister with responsibility for “localism”, I was also keeping a close eye on these Neighbourhood Plan referenda.

After all Neighbourhood Planning is part of …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged housing and neighbourhood plan | 7 Comments

Has Nick Boles given the kiss of life to localism?

By Andy Boddington | Fri 11th January 2013 - 3:51 pm

Announcements come out of the communities department at all times of the day and night these days it seems. Rather before most of us were awake on Thursday morning, the department slipped out a statement that may just breathe life into the flagging localism project.

Coming hours after the appearance of planning minister Nick Boles on Newsnight on Wednesday, the statement gave a firm commitment that communities will soon benefit from development on their patch.

The plan is that parish and town councils will get a sizeable share of the community infrastructure levy imposed on most new developments. At …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged housing policy | 8 Comments

Eric Pickles: are you a cigar-chomping Commie?

By Andy Boddington | Tue 9th October 2012 - 2:45 pm

Dear Eric

You always give a fine performance. Yesterday you told us with passion how you became a Conservative. It was a nice story, but does your claim to have a developed a “burning dislike of oppressive state bureaucracy” match the reality?

Do you remember localism? You did not mention it yesterday. The great localism project, you might recall, was launched on the twin platforms of the Big Society and Open Source Planning. The Big Society has slipped through the cracks of the political stage, but you enshrined localism in the Localism Act 2011.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged eric pickles and planning | 7 Comments

Opinion: Good news on affordable housing, but spare me the house builders’ crocodile tears – their share prices have doubled

By Mike Tuffrey | Fri 7th September 2012 - 12:11 pm

Winning an extra £300m from the Treasury for affordable housing and tackling empty homes is good news by any standard (well done, Andrew Stunell, and thanks for all you did at DCLG). Moving forward on the £10 billion government guarantees for infrastructure spending is positive too. And if the Montague Review to encourage private renting is implemented, that’s proof patience can be rewarded…. I spent ten years on the London Assembly calling for both Labour and Conservative mayors to act. Back in June I had put housing at the heart of a four-point plan for a sustainable recovery. So it is great to see this issue come to the fore.

But forgive me for not believing the crocodile tears from developers about how they can’t afford to start work on ‘commercially unviable’ sites. The Times just revealed they’ve been quietly squirreling away land banks big enough for a quarter of a million homes. Not unviable, so much as slightly less massively profitable. Just look at their share prices. They’ve doubled over the last year even before the boost this announcement gave them (Taylor Wimpey up from 30p to 54p; Barratt up from 76p to 150p; Persimmon up from 425p to 700p). Yes, doubled. Not bumping along the bottom, like the rest of the economy.

Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged affordable housing, andrew stunell, coalition, housebuilders, nick clegg and planning | 13 Comments

The Localism Act – Issues and Questions

By Alex Marsh | Tue 14th February 2012 - 9:13 am

Last Wednesday the LGiU and Bristol City Council collaborated to host a day conference on the Localism Act. Yesterday I introduced some of the main themes from the Government’s perspective, as set out by Andrew Stunell. As the conference progressed many issues and questions emerged. Today I identify those that particularly struck me. A broad message is that there remain significant challenges in effectively communicating to local communities the nature and extent of change.

The discussion of neighbourhood planning and neighbourhood forums highlighted quite how much of the Government’s Localism agenda relies on details yet to emerge. The imminent National …

Posted in News | Also tagged localism act | Leave a comment

The Localism Act – over to you

By Alex Marsh | Mon 13th February 2012 - 9:15 am

Last Wednesday the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) collaborated with Bristol City Council to run a major one-day conference on the Localism Act, which is now rapidly moving towards implementation. The audience comprised primarily local authority elected members and senior officers. The conference was kicked off by Barbara Janke, the Liberal Democrat Leader of Bristol City Council. The day’s discussions were bookended by wide ranging presentations from Westminster Liberal Democrat politicians: Lord Shipley in the morning and Andrew Stunell, …

Posted in News | Also tagged localism act | 3 Comments

That’s the way to do it! How Liberal Democrats made the running on the Localism Bill

By The Voice | Wed 9th November 2011 - 10:15 am

Annette Brooke MP and Lord (Graham) Tope are the Lib Dem Co-Chairs of the Parliamentary Policy Committee on Communities and Local Government, and led the Lib Dem response to the Localism Bill. Here they outline what they, working with colleagues in the party and many beyond, helped achieve.

Last night the Localism Bill completed its final stage in Parliament and is set to become law when it achieves Royal Assent next week.

As Co-Chairs of the Parliamentary Policy Committee on Communities and Local Government, it has been our job over the last ten months to lead on the Bill for the party. We’ve helped shepherd it through both Houses of Parliament, and have led a Lib Dem team that in many ways has made the running on the Bill.

We’ve had strong engagement with Coalition ministers, who engaged with us constructively, particularly Greg Clark, Baroness Hanham and our very own Andrew Stunell, who was very helpful and willing to work together with us to improve the Bill considerably.

Colleagues in local government were also a constant source of help and good ideas, which never ceased to better inform our Bill team as the process went on.

Where we started from: “a good bill in theory, with several flaws in practice”

When it was first introduced, I think many Liberal Democrats would agree that it was a good bill in theory, with several flaws in practice.

Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Also tagged andrew stunell, annette brooke, baroness hanham, graham tope, greg clark, housing, housing ombudsman, localism bill, mayoral referendum, national planning policy framework, neighbourhood forum, neighbourhood plan, nolan principles, planning, standards board, sustainability and tenants | 13 Comments

Stephen Gilbert MP writes: UK housing policy in crisis

By Steve Gilbert MP | Fri 8th July 2011 - 10:18 am

Last year I was probably the only MP to be elected while still living with my parents. Of course, I’d moved out of home and, like many others, had to move back again. It’s a symptom of the fact that housing policy in the UK is in crisis. We have millions of people languishing on social housing waiting lists, first-time-buyers priced out of the market and in private rented sector tenants facing increased rents with decreased security of tenure and standards.

Let’s be clear: Governments of all hues have failed on housing and, frankly, the Coalition has barely begun to acknowledge …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged housing | 22 Comments

Julian Huppert MP writes: 20mph – A local say on local safety

By Julian Huppert MP | Tue 5th July 2011 - 10:25 am

Liberal Democrats are passionate about localism. We want decisions on local issues to stay where they belong. Giving towns and villages the ability to establish 20mph speed zones empowers local communities and allows them to set speeds that are best for local people.

Unfortunately, the system in place until recently focused much less on local government than on micromanagement from Westminster. The story of the parish council of Whiteshill & Ruscombe illustrates this well. The council representing these two Gloucestershire villages paid £1000 out of its own budget to have several “20 is plenty” signs set up. But Whitehall, working from …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged julian huppert, norman baker and speed limits | 12 Comments

Opinion: Localism? They don’t know the meaning of the word!

By Chris White | Fri 17th September 2010 - 3:45 pm

Any Liberal Democrat will tell you he or she believes in localism. So it may be surprising that we have a ‘graveyard slot’ debate next Tuesday on what ought to be familiar territory.

What’s more, we are given to believe that the Coalition Government, despite what we always thought about the Tories, is also pursuing an aggressively localist agenda.

Up to a point, Lord Copper.

On a good day the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government does indeed talk the talk and walk the walk of devolving power. But he also has bad days. He has told councils that …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged communities and local government | 8 Comments

Parliament to scrutinise government’s planning reforms

By Sara Bedford | Thu 5th August 2010 - 7:22 pm

The Commons Communities and Local Government Committee has announced that it will be holding two separate inquiries into aspects of the government’s local planning regime. One inquiry will examine the decision to abolish regional spatial strategies (RSS) and the other will review the coalition’s localism agenda. The abolition of the regional spatial strategies was one of the main measures featured in the coalition government’s Localism Bill, announced in the Queen’s Speech.

The inquiry into the abolition of regional spatial strategies will focus primarily on the implications for house building, in particular the implications of the abolition of regional house building …

Posted in News | Also tagged andrew stunell, planning and rss | 2 Comments

Andrew Stunell at the Local Government Association conference: putting our ideas into practice

By Andrew Stunell MP | Mon 5th July 2010 - 12:20 pm

Three months ago, if I had said that the Liberal Democrats would be in government, and I’d be a Minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government, you would have laughed at me. Yet here we are. I’ve fought no less than eight general elections and at the first seven, all we did was tell people what the Liberal Democrats would do if we got into power. This time we get to show them instead.

And with the Local Government Association Conference coming up this week, our priorities on local government will get their turn in the spotlight.

In …

Posted in News | Also tagged communities and local government, community politics, eric pickles and local government association | 3 Comments

Opinion: Cameron’s vision for local government is bleak

By Alex Foster | Thu 9th July 2009 - 10:25 am

Last week’s Local Government Association conference was addressed on its final day by three representatives from Westminster who’d made the journey northwards to Harrogate to face the serried ranks of senior local government councillors and officers.

The Lib Dems were represented by Vince Cable MP, given an early morning slot that not everyone got to. He was warmly received by all those who were there, in any case, which may represent that it was just the Lib Dem LGA group present. His speech covered his history as a councillor himself in the early 1970s when local government …

Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged #lgaconf, comprehensive area assessment, david cameron, FOI, john denham, lga, Local government and vince cable | 5 Comments

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Nick Clegg: "Of course the EU has to change"

"Mad, swivel-eyed loons": a top Tory on the Tories

Tag Archives: localism

Don Foster MP writes… Local communities say ‘Yes’ to locally-led housebuilding

Has Nick Boles given the kiss of life to localism?

Eric Pickles: are you a cigar-chomping Commie?

Opinion: Good news on affordable housing, but spare me the house builders’ crocodile tears – their share prices have doubled

The Localism Act – Issues and Questions

The Localism Act – over to you

That’s the way to do it! How Liberal Democrats made the running on the Localism Bill

Where we started from: “a good bill in theory, with several flaws in practice”

Stephen Gilbert MP writes: UK housing policy in crisis

Julian Huppert MP writes: 20mph – A local say on local safety

Opinion: Localism? They don’t know the meaning of the word!

Parliament to scrutinise government’s planning reforms

Andrew Stunell at the Local Government Association conference: putting our ideas into practice

Opinion: Cameron’s vision for local government is bleak

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Social mobility: is the Coalition doing enough to encourage it?

Stephen Tall asks: "Did Nate Silver write in vain?"

Nick Clegg: "Of course the EU has to change"

"Mad, swivel-eyed loons": a top Tory on the Tories

Tag Archives: localism

Where we started from: “a good bill in theory, with several flaws in practice”

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