Sustainable Communities Act Selection Process

• Home
• Your Council
• Consultations
• The Sustainable Communities Act
• Sustainable Communities Act Selection Process

The Government has set a deadline for the first submissions under the Act of 31 July 2009. All proposals under the Act have to have local support and the formal approval of the local council or its Executive. Local support must be established through consultation with a local panel. Kingston’s local panel will be formed by selecting a demographically representative group of about 30 residents who will meet for a workshop in June.

Prior to the workshop, throughout May, the Council will be contacting local stakeholder groups to get ideas to feed into the workshop and inform  discussions. Following the workshop we hope to have a shortlist of proposals selected by local people that we can pass on to the Councils Executive who will ensure that the suggestions are viable. The proposals can then be  forwarded to the Local Government Association (LGA).  

The LGA’s all party Selector Panel, made up of one councillor from each of the four parties on the LGA, will decide whether to refer the proposals to CLG (Department of Communities and Local Government). The Panel must give clear reasons for its actions, whether the proposals are sent forward to CLG or rejected.

Councils and the LGA will first need to ask, is this something that could happen anyway under existing powers?

The LGA Selector Panel will assess proposals under three broad headings:

1. Scope and coverage – number of people and geographic area affected
2. What ‘better outcomes’ achieved – measure of economic, social and environmental benefits and how it contributes to civic and political activity
3. Viability – scale of change needed, such as the scale of transfer of functions from one public body to another and levels of local support

The Panel decides which proposals to submit to the Secretary of State.  The Secretary of State must decide which of the proposals should be implemented and which should not. Before making a decision on those to be rejected “the Secretary of State must consult the Selector (LGA) and try to reach agreement.”

Once CLG has accepted a proposal it has to produce an ‘Action Plan’ and report progress to Parliament on an annual basis.