The Localism Act 2011

The Localism Act 2011

The Localism Act 2011 is a major piece of reforming legislation that makes significant changes to local government, social housing and the planning system; it also amends the rules relating to assured shorthold tenancy deposits.

Overview

The Act is the flagship measure of the Government's decentralisation policy, which aims to move decision making from central Government to local communities. The policy is summed up in the Government's guide to the Act: "We think that power should be exercised at the lowest practical level – close to the people who are affected by decisions, rather than distant from them." The central planks of the Act are the abolition of Regional Strategies, a new system of neighbourhood planning which will allow certain development to be approved by a local referendum, new rights for community groups to bid to take over assets of community value when they are sold and the introduction of a general power of competence for local authorities. The original proposal for five per cent of local electors to have the right to trigger a local referendum on any issue has been dropped. Much of the detail of the measures in the Act remains to be dealt with in regulations. The Government aims for many of the major measures to come into effect in April 2012.

This update focuses mainly on the planning aspects of the Act; it does not deal with the provisions relating to social housing, local authority governance, business rates or EU fines.

Abolition of Regional Strategies

The Act provides for the abolition of Regional Strategies – regionally set policies and priorities on matters such as housing supply, the environment, infrastructure and waste, which provide a framework for local planning policies. The Secretary of State had sought to use existing powers to revoke the strategies but his right to do so was challenged in the courts. The Act now puts the matter beyond doubt.

However, local authorities are not given a completely free hand to ignore the effect of their policies on surrounding areas. A new duty to co-operate in preparing development documents is imposed on local planning authorities and county councils. The duty requires them "to engage constructively, actively and on an ongoing basis" with each other in relation to strategic matters, which are, broadly, matters which affect more than one area or authority.

Neighbourhood Planning

At the heart of the Government's localism policy is a radical new system in which there is the option for planning decisions to be dictated by local referendums and, in a major change to the original proposals, businesses will have a say as well as residents.

The new system will apply in relation to local areas to be designated as "neighbourhood areas" which, if they are wholly or predominantly business in nature, may be designated as "business areas". Rights in respect of these areas are given to parish councils and, in areas without parish councils, new bodies to be designated as "neighbourhood forums" whose membership will be open to people who live or work in the area and to local councillors. The designations will be made by local planning authorities.

The parish council or neighbourhood forum will have...

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