Brought from the Commons on 19 May 2011. Explanatory notes to the Bill, prepared by the Department for Communities and Local Government, are published separately as HL Bill 71-EN (ISBN 9780108461187)

Localism Bill : (as amended in Public Bill Committee)

The Localism Bill will devolve powers to councils and neighbourhoods and aims to give local communities more control over housing and planning decisions. It includes measures to reform the planning system, the provision of housing and a range of local authority governance issues. The Bill will abolish Regional Spatial Strategies (which set a regional-level planning framework for England) and will establish neighbourhood plans and neighbourhood development orders, by which it is intended that communities will be able to influence council policies and development in their neighbourhoods. The Government intends to introduce a 'presumption in favour of sustainable development' as set out in the Conservative Party's 2010 Green Paper 'Open Source Planning' and then in the Coalition Agreement. The presumption does not feature in the Localism Bill, although it will be included in a new National Planning Policy Framework. Evidence taken by the Committee highlighted a number of potential risks with the proposed reforms. These included: fairness in influencing neighbourhood development; monitoring the cumulative impacts of locally determined planning decisions; and the application of sustainability and climate change duties to neighbourhood planning. The Committee feels that the Localism Bill must provide a statutory duty to apply the principles of sustainability in the planning system and other functions of local government and provide a commitment to define the term 'sustainable development' in the planning context. This would include in the Bill the five internationally recognised principles of sustainable development as set out in the 2005 Sustainable Development Strategy. This should then be developed for the National Planning Policy Framework

The New Localism provides a roadmap for change that starts in the communities where most people live and work. In their new book, The New Localism, urban experts Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak reveal where the real power to create change lies and how it can be used to address our most serious social, economic, and environmental challenges. Power is shifting in the world: downward from national governments and states to cities and metropolitan communities; horizontally from the public sector to networks of public, private and civic actors; and globally along circuits of capital, trade, and innovation. This new locus of power—this new localism—is emerging by necessity to solve the grand challenges characteristic of modern societies: economic competitiveness, social inclusion and opportunity; a renewed public life; the challenge of diversity; and the imperative of environmental sustainability. Where rising populism on the right and the left exploits the grievances of those left behind in the global economy, new localism has developed as a mechanism to address them head on. New localism is not a replacement for the vital roles federal governments play; it is the ideal complement to an effective federal government, and, currently, an urgently needed remedy for national dysfunction. In The New Localism, Katz and Nowak tell the stories of the cities that are on the vanguard of problem solving. Pittsburgh is catalyzing inclusive growth by inventing and deploying new industries and technologies. Indianapolis is governing its city and metropolis through a network of public, private and civic leaders. Copenhagen is using publicly owned assets like their waterfront to spur large scale redevelopment and finance infrastructure from land sales. Out of these stories emerge new norms of growth, governance, and finance and a path toward a more prosperous, sustainable, and inclusive society. Katz and Nowak imagine a world in which urban institutions finance the future through smart investments in innovation, infrastructure and children and urban intermediaries take solutions created in one city and adapt and tailor them to other cities with speed and precision. As Katz and Nowak show us in The New Localism, “Power now belongs to the problem solvers.”

This report finds that the Government's desire to deliver localism is neither supported consistently across Whitehall nor implemented coherently by each department of state. MPs warn that the Minister for Decentralisation will need to bring coherence, rigour and clear priorities to the Government's programme. The MPs call for a more explicit statement about where the dividing line will be drawn between a central, light-touch framework for local services and unwarranted interference from ministers in local affairs. So far the Government has shown itself all too eager to impose its preferences on local decision-making. Ministers have also introduced policies that circumvent rather than empower local government: elected police commissioners, free schools, academies and health service reform, threaten to fragment rather than integrate delivery of better public services at local level. As devolution proceeds, the manner in which local decisions are taken come under greater scrutiny. Any reduction in the inspection and performance management required by Whitehall must be accompanied by stronger local democratic accountability. Broadening the provider base for public services is an important plank of the government's decentralisation agenda, but it remains unclear how far the 'Big Society' can expand to take on services and functions shed by statutory bodies. Localism should not be adopted purely as a way to curb public sector costs not least because the financial benefits of more tailored services may not offset the loss of efficiencies of scale. Stimulating greater democratic participation and civic activism will itself cost money if it is to be successful and sustainable.

Cornerstone on Councillors' Conduct identifies and explains the law following the changes implemented by the Localism Act 2011 in relation to the standards system governing the conduct of elected members in Local Government. With a practical focus it addresses questions such as “How do I draw up a local standards code?”, “Do I need a local standards committee?” and “How do I go about challenging a member's conduct?” Covers the following areas: INTRODUCTION: Covers the history of law relating to councillors' conduct, including events leading up to Nolan, the outcome of Nolan and the Localism Act and governance framework for local authorities. THE STANDARDS REGIME: Covers the framework for the setting and enforcement of the new standards, new local authority duty to promote and maintain high standards, local codes and the procedure for adopting a voluntary Code and the substantive content of Codes, to whom the Codes apply, enforcement of the standards regime: procedures for enforcement, decisions whether to investigate, procedures for investigation, sanctions (including withdrawal of party whip) and roles of monitoring officers, CEO, Group Leaders. COUNCILLORS' CONDUCT AND DECISION-MAKING: Covers: common law rules on bias and predetermination, statutory amendments to the rules, personal interests, other conduct issues: e.g. bullying, honesty, bringing the authority into disrepute and misfeasance in public office, Localism Act 2011. CHALLENGING COUNCIL DECISIONS: Covers judicial review of Council's decisions, including grounds of challenge, funding, interim remedies, procedure, final remedies including discretion not to quash decisions, ombudsman. CRIMINAL OFFENCES: Covers section 34 of the Localism Act 2011, corruption, other relevant offences.

In November 2009 the previous Government published six draft energy NPSs and associated documents for public consultation and Parliamentary scrutiny. In the House of Commons, the previous Energy and Climate Change (ECC) Select Committee scrutinised the draft energy NPSs and published a report (HC 231-I, session 2009-10, ISBN 9780215545237) of itsfindings. This included a recommendation that the draft NPSs should be subject to a debate in the main chamber of the House of Commons. This debate took place on 1st December 2010 on the basis of revised draft NPSs and a number of issues were raised there. This is the Government response to the 18 recommendations made by the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee to the revised NPSs.