Living Villages Summit: Localism and Big

Society

John Coleman. Head of Rural Intelligence and Big Society.

The Rural Communities Policy Unit, 24th June, 2011

A Rural Communities Policy Unit was created

in Defra, April 1st 2011

RCPU Engagement

with Civil Society

RCPU Policy

Work With OGDs

Defra Ministers

Rural Champions

RCPU Key Priority:

Identify issues of critical

importance to rural

communities and

support, inform and

influence government

policy to achieve

fair, practical and

affordable outcomes for

rural

residents, businesses

and communities.

Defra Ministers: Rural

Champions and Lead rural

proofing of policy across

Whitehall

RCPU Key Priority:

Developing open and

collaborative approaches to

gathering

information, evidence and

solutions working closely

with the wide range of

organisations which support

and represent rural

communities.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/communities/

Localism and the Big Society

Rural Intelligence and Big Society Team

Big Society

• Rural communities are enabled and empowered by the Big Society and supported by local decision makers

• E.g. Supporting DCLG and OCS to build capacity

Intelligence

• Open and collaborative working with rural communities, civic society and decision makers to ensure ‘credible’ representation

• E.g. ACRE / RCAN - reporting on the shared endeavours in local decision taking between communities and local government.

Stakeholder and Communications

• To help deliver open and responsive government through two way dialogue

• Developing new rural and farming networks to engage with Ministers

Rural – fertile ground for the big society?

• There are higher numbers of voluntary organisations per head of

population in rural as compared to urban England.

• Civic engagement is higher in rural England (with 54% of residents

participating) compared to urban England (where 45% of residents participate).

• An estimated £3 billion of community assets exist in rural England including

over 10,000 village halls, 90% are run by local volunteers.

• Over 4,000 community-led plans have been completed with about half of the

actions funded and delivered by communities themselves Source: Respublica report, the Rural Big

Society, March 2011

In Hereford:

• This equates to 53,000 adults who volunteer for approximately 5,876,000 hours

per annum which is valued at around £60 million if you had to pay this many

employees Source: Herefordshire quality of life survey 2008, Herefordshire Council Research Team

Localism Bill will bring...

• A planning system clearer, more democratic and

more effective.

• A new National Planning Policy Framework

• New freedoms and flexibilities for local government

• Reforming the community infrastructure levy and

other local finance considerations

Key changes and new rights and powers for

communities:

• Community right to challenge; right to build, and right to

buy.

• Neighbourhood planning

• Local referendums

• Hereford’s well developed partnership working - between

elected and non-elected representatives - fundamental to

success!!

Localism Bill will bring...

At the Village level - Parish and Town

Councils are vital resources for villages

• Village catalysts and enablers

• Local knowledge and skills: drivers of innovation

• Bringing coherency to the voice communities e.g. through

neighbourhood planning

• Hereford: leading the way e.g. on Participatory Budgeting.

The Eden Vanguard has shown the importance of:

• communities being in charge of changes to their areas

• community-led decisions need, in practice, to be taken with

‘elected legitimacy’ – P+T Councils critical to this

Big things are on the horizon ...

A Government Wide Rural Statement:

• bringing together for the first time a consolidated picture of what the

Government‘s broad range of policies and programmes will mean in

practice for rural people, businesses and communities

A Rural Growth Review:

• scrutinising the constraints, opportunities and risks impacting on

economic growth in rural areas, and considering specific issues

including labour market characteristics, to support the Government's

commitment to rebalancing the economy

Grant Shapps: Speech to the Local Government

Association, 9 June, 2011.

"Local councillors are the heroes of their communities - they're hard

working, dedicated and often unpaid. But for years these

democratically elected representatives have been forced to sit on

their hands in the passenger seat of local government, whilst local

decisions are dictated to them from Whitehall.

"The Government ... has set councils on a revolutionary road where

the authority and responsibility of councillors will be restored,

along with their ability to respond to what local people need and

want. We've put councillors in the driving seat.