Planning permissions and local plans are not isolated decisions or policies – they are part of a local planning system which is joined up to national policies…
Planning permissions and local plans are not isolated decisions or policies - they are part of a local planning system which is joined up to national policies...
In more detail
The local planning system is based on the idea that alongside the rights of landowners, the wider community has an interest in and rights to do with how land and buildings are developed.
These rights and interests arise from:
the effect that development has on immediate neighbours
the wider effects of development, for example on the capacity of local infrastructure and on the local taxpayers who maintain it
the idea of neighbourhood community: that all of us who live in an area have a legitimate interest in its value as a place in which to live and work.
Balance
The planning system aims to balance these rights and interests - personal and social - with a view to deciding what development should go ahead. The system is concerned with spatial planning: not simply how individual plots of land and buildings should be used and developed; but also how they relate to each other to create places. This includes transport links and other links between them and the shared systems for serving them; and the relationships between where people live and where they will work. By balancing the rights of people with an interest in a place, the planning system is our shared way of shaping places.
Democratic and Coherent
It is a democratic system - the authorities in charge of the planning system are the councils we elect.
The video above is of the Planning Committee meeting in Birmingham which took place on 23 June 2016.
The system is participative as well as representative: we are able to take part through consultation on planning decisions and as participants in making plans. But the system is based on law and on objective policy which aims to ensure that all parties are treated fairly. Local plans are subject to a National Planning Policy Framework which is based on law agreed by Parliament. When decisions about planning permission are made, they have to fit with national and local policy. When a new local plan is made, it must fit with existing national and local policy - in the form of the local development framework).
Limiting and Enabling
The planning system says what can or cannot be developed. It does not say what will be developed - that is up to the owners of the land. Local plans set limits and enable development within those limits. They are not prescriptive. The planning system allows for some development to go ahead that is outside the terms of what local plans enable. In these cases, however, the developer may have to pay some contribution to the community to compensate.
Key Facts:
The local planning system balances the righst and interests of land-owners with the wider community. It is democractic because the authorities in charge of it are the councils we elect. But planning decisions must fit in with local and national planning policy. New local plans must fit in with national policy and the existing local framework. Plans set limits on development, but they enable development within those limits. Plans and planning decisions are enabling rather than prescriptive: they say what may happen; not what will happen.
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BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET
This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
Communities are assets which hold the fabric of society together. They can also get in the way of making places better – acting more like local liabilities. It’s useful to think about what communities actually are because there are a lot of misunderstandings about them…
Communities are assets which hold the fabric of society together. They can also get in the way of making places better – acting more like local liabilities. It’s useful to think about what communities actually are because there are a lot of misunderstandings about them...
In more detail
A community is a group of people who share a common interest and a sense of identity. People who live in a neighbourhood may be part of a ‘neighbourhood community’. People who work at a particular workplace or profession may belong to workplace or professional communities. Communities can be made on the basis of ethnicity, age, faith, gender, sexuality, social class, politics, housing tenure etc. Communities can also form around schools, clubs, sports teams, music and even things like doctors’ surgeries, social landlords and bus routes. If you use a service (or might use a service) alongside others or feel you have a stake in something which is shared by other people, then you have the basis of a community.
Anyone can be a member of many communities. So communities overlap. It is this overlapping of communities (with individual people and families acting as the stitches between them) that makes up the fabric of our society. Communities can also have hard edges; they can be exclusive and not have many links with others and don’t fit in well with the rest of society. Some very internally strong communities behave like this – think of gangs for example. Finally, communities can underlap – which is another way of saying some – socially excluded – people aren’t in any or many communities.
Understanding Communities
There are some important points about communities that not everyone who talks about them (including a lot of professionals) know or properly appreciate:
People sometimes talk about ‘communities of interest’ as being all those communities which aren’t based on geography (and they might talk about ‘communities of place’ to describe those communities that are geographically based). It’s sometimes useful to distinguish between these two sorts of communities. Both are important in planning the future of places (although in different ways), but in fact all communities are ‘communities of interest’. Geographical communities simply share an interest in a place, rather than anything else.
Identity matters – which is to say that a community only exists when people identify and express our shared interest for ourselves. Communities don’t exist because a group of professionals says they ought to.
People often use the word ‘stakeholders’ in a very inclusive way. So everyone from the local police chief to the young people playing in the park is said to be a stakeholder in the neighbourhood. It’s true they all have an interest in improving a place; but the interest a paid professional has in a place is not the same as the interest residents and local businesses share. Professionals usually live outside the neighbourhood, maybe not even in the same city; next year they may be working to serve a different neighbourhood. When everyone else has gone, the residents and the businesses based in the area are what remains – their stake is significantly higher.
The video above is members of the public in Seattle interviewed about what they think of community.
The ‘Good old days’ – when everyone was friendly, you could leave your front door unbolted and communities were as strong as rocks – never existed. Neighbours have always quarrelled; there has always been some antisocial behaviour (though it’s true what we tolerate and how we deal with it has changed a lot); and it seems likely that communities, collectively, are no stronger or weaker than they ever were. A lot of individual communities – and neighbourhood and workplace communities in particular – have become weaker. At the same time, a lot of other communities have grown up: we have more diverse interests; we are, on average, members of many more communities used to be the case.
Communities change the same as everything else. So, when you think about a community, you need to bear the future in mind too. The community of people who might have an interest in the service provided by a hospital, or a library, isn’t just the people who use it now; it could include people who don’t use it, but are potential users. The community of your place includes young people and people who have only just arrived. Sometimes you might even want to consider people who haven’t yet been born as part of your community (think about how you might include their voice in community planning!) A key test in making places better to live and work in, after all, is whether you leave a better place to the next generation than you inherited from the last?
Channels of communication are what counts in holding communities together. It’s not necessary to know every other member of a community to be part of it or to talk to everyone in your community every day. But, the easier it is for members of a community to communicate with each other when we need to, the stronger our community is. Channels of community include face-to-face conversation and notices and newsletters; local radio and newspapers; and also websites and social media.
Community leaders – a much abused and sometimes maligned phrase. It often suits people who want to engage with communities to talk with some selected leaders because it makes them easier to deal with. There’s nothing wrong with that idea, but bear in mind: community leaders are people who help a group set and take a direction. They are not always the same people; in practice, leadership can flit around a group between its members; and they not always the people who make the loudest noise in a community group.
Communities work on the basis of participation. By-and-large things get done because people volunteer rather than anyone tells them they must. Participative democracy is not the same as representative democracy: in one everyone gets a chance to put up their hand to volunteer; in the other everyone gets a chance to put up their hand to vote. Sometimes professionals treat communities as if they were democratic organisations like the local council. They aren’t. Representing a community means using channels of communication to keep in touch with people, not winning a vote or being a ‘token’ represented by another organisation because you fit their idea of what your community looks like.
Conflict and compromise – communities don’t always agree. Just because you share an interest in a place and acknowledge a common identity, does not mean you agree with everything your neighbours think or say. Disagreement within and between communities is inevitable. It is how conflict is resolved which determines either whether it brings a place down, or can lead to a productive way forward. Resolving conflict is often, but not always, a matter of compromise. The best way forward is sometimes neither the most popular idea or the middle way between extremes. So, whilst compromise is very often better than voting, sometimes a good way forward only comes out of discussion, which can sometimes take time.
Key Facts:
A community is a group of people who share a common interest and a sense of identity. We may all belong to very many communities. A neighbourhood community is particularly improtant because - at best - it acts as a 'community of communities' with an interest in a place.
OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET
This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
Community Planning is based on the idea that the experts in an area – the people who live and work there – should be involved in planning and making it a better place…
Community Planning is based on the idea that the experts in an area - the people who live and work there - should be involved in planning and making it a better place...
In more detail
Community planning is planning carried out with the active participation of groups of people with shared interests in a service or a place. It might involve local spatial planning (to do with the use of the space we share). It can also involve how places are served and how the communities which share a place work together (and with the agencies which serve them) to make it better to live and work in.
Scope
Community planning and design could apply to anything which needs planning and design: a project or a service; a site or an organisation. This toolkit is about community planning of neighbourhoods. That is, working out how to improve the places we live and work with the active participation of the people with the biggest stake in them. Neighbourhood planning is part of that (bear in mind that formal neighbourhood planning only covers spatial issues – this toolkit is concerned with community planning applied to all sorts of neighbourhood issues). In community planning for a neighbourhood, your focus is the place and its people, not a process or set of outputs to do with the local planning framework.
Where you do it – it’s nearly always best to be ‘on site’, that is in the neighbourhood itself. Partly, being there makes it accessible for the people you want to take part. Partly, being there means people can make easier reference to things that are important and more easily show each other what they mean. Sometimes there is a case for getting away from the neighbourhood, however. You might find things like prioritisation, dealing with conflict and other tasks for which you need objectivity can be done well away from the neighbourhood.
How you do it – a lot of community planning works through dialogue: that is conversation, not consultation. You generally sit in a circle rather than have everyone facing a ‘top table’. You make sure you use words most people understand and avoid jargon and abbreviations wherever possible. You create lots of ways for people to take part – we don’t all work the same; some methods work well for some and not at all for others. You use lots of visual methods – pictures, graphs and maps (but the maps don’t always have to be to scale or to show every feature) – because these make sense for a lot of people. You live with difference – not everyone has to agree all the time. Your objective throughout is to enable variety – of voices and views; of methods; of channels of communication; and of conclusions. Unlike in industrial processes where quality is based on conformity, the quality of community planning depends a lot on enabling and drawing value from diversity.
Who does it – the most important participants are the resident experts – the people who live or run businesses in the place and who have the local knowledge on which the plan depends. You will need external experts: and, respectfully, keep them ‘on tap, not on top’. You will need to listen to people from the area who aren’t normally heard including: young people; newcomer communities; disabled people; minorities; people from the less well-off parts of the place. Their voices matter because they see your place from a different angle and may know different things about it. And although you want as many people involved as possible, remember: there’s no point waiting for people to step forward: you – and other individuals - will have to take a lead from time to time; and community planning isn’t a numbers game. You want quality, not quantity of responses.
When you do it –you will probably want to get on with community planning; but you probably also know that – as with most projects – time spent preparing beforehand is rarely time wasted? The thing to bear in mind is that planning is a process and preparation is an essential part of it. So, don’t regard preparatory work – like talking to lots of other people and local agencies about what you want to do; or setting up a local website to publicise it and get people talking – as time wasted. If you are doing those things, you’ve actually made a start on community planning.
Why you do it – community planning is action-planning. The product at the end of it is an action plan which should have actions people and organisations – including developers - can take to make the neighbourhood a better place to live and do business. This sounds obvious, but remember that some of the people you will be working with are a lot more used to ‘inaction’ plans – that is the sort of plan that takes so long to produce and is all about the problems of doing anything that producing it becomes an alternative to taking action. But community planning isn’t all about the end-product, it is about the process you follow too. The process of coming together to take part in planning adds value. It should be: a learning experience for the people involved; enjoyable and rewarding; and it should leave more capacity (skills and connections) behind in the community to carry on planning in future.
Key Facts:
Community Planning means the communities with an interest in a place being involved in, and leading, planning and making it better. Neighbourhood planning is a specific example of community planning which deals with spatial planning issues. The idea behind this toolkit is that communities in urban neighbourhoods in particular are likely to benefit from looking at how to use other tools - including wider community planning - alongside neighbourhood planning.
OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET
This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
Civil society is sometimes called ‘the third sector’, but it pre-dates either public authorities or private enterprise…
Civil society is sometimes called 'the third sector', but it pre-dates either public authorities or private enterprise...
In more detail
Civil society is all the things that exist because of what we do and plan together and not because someone either paid for them, or passed a law to say they should. It includes:
Families
Social networks (the patterns of who knows whom)
Communities
Community groups
Voluntary organisations
Charities and trusts
and the links between them. Other organisations like authorities and businesses contribute to civil society - although they are not part of it. Our social networks, for example, are influenced by the work we do and the services, like schools and places of worship, we may use. Some organisations, like social enterprises, or some large charities – which are part of civil society – also work as businesses or like public sector bodies.
Sometimes it is called the third sector or voluntary sector (as opposed to the private sector and the public sector). In fact, civil society is more accurately the ‘first sector’. Humans co-operated voluntarily to achieve common goals before we ever invented government or business.
Some accounts and descriptions of civil society focus on how it joins up with the public sector. These descriptions tend to over-emphasise the importance of large, organised voluntary organisations and charities run by professional employees. They may refer to ‘the voluntary sector’ rather than civil society. Other accounts and descriptions of civil society focus on the places where it most resembles business. Social enterprises figure largely in these descriptions. The truth is that whilst both of these types of organisation is part of civil society, most of civil society is made up by families; friends; neighbours; people helping each other out; informal volunteering – ‘lending a hand’; giving time and money to people who need it; and a multitude of small – often informal – community groups and the networks between them.
Businesses and public services make a massive difference to the quality of life in the community, but making anywhere a better place to live in the long run depends on local civil society, not what the council says or what businesses can do.
Key Facts:
Civil society is citizens linked by common interest and collective action: everything which happens in your neighbourhood which isn't the result of a decision by an elected official or because of a market price. It is the 'first sector' not the the 'third sector' because it pre-dates authorities and markets. Public services and private enterprise create opportunities, but civil society makes up the bedrock of wealth and wellbeing in almost any neighbourhood.
Page Links from here
Civil Society is a useful website with news, events and information relating to the 'third sector'
What is Civil Society was a BBC World Service radio series first broadcast in 2001 - notes and a link to listen to the programme are available on the BBC website
OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET
This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
There are thousands of community groups in a city and may be hundreds in a single neighbourhood…
There are thousands of community groups in a city and may be hundreds in a single neighbourhood...
In more detail
A community is a group of people with a shared interest and an idea of themselves as such. Community groups are organisations which are made up of members of a community; are led by them; and which attempt to embody the shared interest of the community.
Not all the members of a community are necessarily members of a community group. Some residents, for example, choose not to pay subs to be members of a residents’ association. Not subscribing, however, doesn’t mean they aren’t part of the community. You don’t have to be a member of a group to belong to a community but, in general, you must be a member of the community to join, or lead, a community group.
For example, a charity to help homeless people which isn’t led by people with experience of homelessness, isn’t a community group. A housing co-operative (a sort of organisation where the members may also be the benefiaries) is a community group.
Mutual Aid
Community groups are ‘voluntary organisations’ (no one has to join one), but they are about ‘mutual aid’, not necessarily volunteering. Mutual aid means exchanging resources and services so that everyone benefits. Volunteering means giving resources (time) and services to help some needy beneficiaries. Many community groups depend on volunteers (to serve on committees or to keep a list of members etc), but community groups have to involve some element of give and take – ie exchange.
Not all community groups are small – though the vast majority are tiny. Some large organisations, employing staff could still be seen as community groups. For example, the National Farmers’ Union or Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament are two large organisations which represent the shared interest of the members of the communities which, respectively, make them up and lead them.
Community Groups in different forms
It isn’t always clear what the community is that a community group is drawn from. Sometimes community groups may not be exactly what they say they are ‘on the tin’. For example: the
A community group doesn’t have to have a set of written rules; most community groups don’t. A group of parents who meet at the school gate, or students who share notes and help each other revise for exams – don’t need a written constitution. Of course, they still have rules - unwritten ones – because all organisations have rules. Most community groups are unconstituted (have no written rules); many have constitutions (written rules); some may be set up as co-operatives, charities or even as limited companies.
A community group can be ‘virtual’. For some people, Facebook or Twitter are community groups. People keep in touch by writing letters and phone calls as well as through face to face meetings. Digital communications have made all of these activities – and other ways of acting as community group – easier.
Key Facts:
Community groups are made up by members of a community, led by them and representing the interests of a community. Most are very small. Most are very informal. Community groups play a big part in making social capital (the links between people) and in enabling communities to get hold of and deal with larger organisations like the council.
OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET
This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
What happens if the people writing the news are part of the same community as those making it…
What happens if the people writing the news are part of the same community as those making it...
In more detail
Hyperlocal refers to information, exchange or business that is focused on a (small) well-defined community and that is directed to meeting the needs of that community. For example:
hyperlocal media - is the means for exchanging news and information within a neighbourhood which is about the neighbourhood
hyperlocal marketing - is placing goods and services for sale in a neighbourhood which are of the neighbourhood and tailored to it.
Hyperlocal Websites
Hyperlocal websites are neighbourhood websites. Which is to say that they are websites which are written by people in a neighbourhood about what happens in that neighbourhood for people who also live in the neighbourhood. The news is written by people who are also, in a sense, part of making the news. Which can make hyperlocal sites very absorbing: as well as reporting on news, they lead to more happening in the neighbourhood.
Secondary audiences
Although the primary audience for a hyperlocal site is the people who live in the place it relates to, there are important secondary audiences. They include: people who serve the neighbourhood from outside it; investors and potential investors in the neighbourhood; people who live in neighbouring places and people who might want to live in the neighbourhood. In all cases, a successful hyperlocal website can attract people and investment to the area.
Spread of hyperlocal sites
A Cardiff University survey listed about 400 hyperlocal sites. The main content covered is community activities, public services and the local council. A surprising 1 in 10 of internet users use hyperlocal sites at least once a week. About 1 in 8 sites generate more than £500 a week (mainly through advertising), but most are self-funded. Other surveys have found very many more sites with particular concentrations in London, Birmingham and Leeds. Some hyperlocal sites are well established, but all depend on the enthusiasm of local volunteers and some can be short-lived.
Key Facts:
Hyperlocal means focused on a community and being of the same community. A hyperlocal website is written by the community about the community. It can increase the level of community activity and improve the local community network. Hyperlocal sites can also attract interest and investement in the neighbourhood from outside.
OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET
This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
A charity which aims to help people make communities and neighbourhoods sustainable…
A charity which aims to help people make communities and neighbourhoods sustainable...
In more detail
The Prince’s Foundation is an educational charity which aims to help people to take part in making communities and neighbourhoods more sustainable. The Foundation works at all levels – from local residents' groups to governments. Formerly known as the Institute of Architecture, the Foundation was set up in 1987 by the Prince of Wales.
The Prince’s Foundation pioneered ‘Enquiry by Design’. This is an approach to community planning based on bringing different experts – including resident experts – together for a concentrated, and intensive, period of time (several days). The Foundation provides practical support and funding for skills training and education designed to help professionals and communities, together, to make better places to live.
Video introduced by George Clarke – who is President of the Foundation.
Key Facts:
The Prince's Foundation produces advice and shares inspiration for communities and people with responsibility for neighbourhoods. The Enquiry by Design approach is a way of doing community planning.
OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET
This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
How do communities make decisions? Not through consultations, but through conversation – community dialogue…
How do communities make decisions? Not through consultations, but through conversation - community dialogue...
In more detail
A community is a group of people who share a common interest, values and/or identity. The word ‘community’ comes from the Latin word ‘communis’ meaning ‘things held together’. Dialogue refers to words exchanged between people. The word ‘dialogue’ comes from Greek words meaning ‘words between’. So, 'community dialogue’ means something like: ‘words between us that help to hold things together’. A conversation with purpose and meaning.
Community dialogue is largely how civil society and the community groups and others which make it up, decide what to do. Whilst public sector bodies, like councils, make their decisions based on elections and on consultations; and businesses may make their decisions based on the market; making decisions in civil society involves chatting them through?
Sustainable progress
If you want your neighbourhood to be somewhere which is improved because of the things people do as families and communities - civil society - then creating the means for dialogue matters a great deal. Self-sustaining improvement comes from being able to talk to each other so we can work out how to make progress. Which means, investing in the means for community dialogue - a local community hub, a hyperlocal website, community lunches - and using community dialogue as a way of community planning is investing in the long-term ability of your neighbourhood community to make progress.
Could you start neighbourhood improvement not be organising a consultation, but by looking at developing the means for people to get involved in community dialogue?
Key Facts:
If public services make decisions through elections and formal consultations; busineses make their decisions dependent on the market; civil society - communities - make decisions through community dialogue: 'words between us that help to hold things together’. Perhaps one way to get sustainable improvement going in a neighbourhood is to focus on making better ways that people can talk and listen to one another?
OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET
This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
Improving a neighbourhood isn’t just about increasing property value and ensuring jobs. Communities are often more concerned with the state of shared wealth and wellbeing in a place – its social value…
Improving a neighbourhood isn't just about increasing property value and ensuring jobs. Communities are often more concerned with the state of shared wealth and wellbeing in a place - its social value...
In more detail
Social value is value that is held socially (shared between people) rather than included in the accounts of individual householders and businesses. It includes, for example:
the value of shared spaces and fresh air - streetscapes; landscapes; parks and community gardens
the value of social capital - having links with other people and knowing how to get things done through the community
the value of some human capital - skills and know-how that it is hard to put an economic value on (like parenting skills, for example)
the value of unpaid labour - the time spent by carers and neighbours and doing jobs for people without payment.
As well as these stores of social value, there is a whole area of it to do with how goods are made and services are delivered which is not reflected in their price. For example:
the use of local labour and materials - which can enhance the value of public services and construction works and reduce the amount of pollution involved
the way that the benefits of work are distributed between people - a part-time job for someone who is disabled or otherwise excluded from work is probably worth more than overtime to someone who already has a job
learning of new skills and ways of working- which may not be directly reflected in the quality of what is brought to market, but which enables us as a society to achieve more, and better, in future.
Social Value Act
The Public Services (Social Value) Act of 2012 came into force in 2013 and requires people who commission public services to think about how they can also secure wider social, economic and environmental benefits (ie social value). Before starting a procurement process, commissioners should think about whether the services they are going to buy, or the way they are going to buy them, could secure these benefits for their area or stakeholders. The video below shows Peter Holbrook of Social Enterprise UK explaining what the Social Value Act means:
Sustainable Communities Act
The Sustainable Communities Act 2007 enables councils - working in partnership with local communities - to make proposals as to how government can ‘assist councils in promoting the sustainability of local communities’. Itprovides an opportunity for local people, communities and councils to ask government to remove legislative or other barriers that prevent them from improving the economic, social and environmental well-being of their area (and thus add social value to it).
Power of General Competence
The Localism Act 2011 gives councils a 'power of general competence'. That is, councils are allowed to do anything that any other legal person (an individual or a business) can legally do so as to meet their aim which is to improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of their area. Councils can, for example, enter into partnerships to deliver new services or support initiatives which add to local well-being.
Key Facts:
Social value is shared wealth. It is why living in a neighbourhood with a good environment and a strong and inclusive community network is, for example, better than living in a badly-kept place where people don't talk to each other. Parliament requires public service providers to take social value into account when they commission services and enables councils to innovate and to ask government to change regulations which prevent communities from improving local social value.
Page Links from here
OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET
This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
Devolution in Scotland and Wales means more powers for national Parliaments and Assemblies, but what does it mean for English towns and cities? And for the neighbourhoods we live in…
Devolution in Scotland and Wales means more powers for national Parliaments and Assemblies, but what does it mean for English towns and cities? And for the neighbourhoods we live in...
In more detail
Devolution means passing decisions, powers and resources down to a lower, more local level. It can apply at:
national level – passing decisions and budgets from Whitehall to regional and city-regional levels
local level – passing decisions and budgets from the Town or City Hall to neighbourhoods.
National level
In England, the government has devolved powers to the Mayor of London and is in the process of devolution to Combined Authorities centred on Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield and elsewhere. Combined authorities cover a number of existing local councils which are committed to work together in return for devolution of budgets and responsibilities from government. It is likely that Combined Authorities will be led by directly elected mayors. The video below is of an Institute for Government discussion of the likely effect and challenges of devolution in respect of public services (this quite a long video).
Local level
A number of local councils, including Leeds and Birmingham, have devolved powers to area commitees. These committees are made up by councillors - they have been elected and are accountable for their decisions. Local committees, however, enable them to make decisions about the areas they represent. Alternative ways of local devolution in cities could include local directly elected mayors for neighbourhoods or setting up local parish councils in some neighbourhoods. The video below is from The Guardian newspaper - it features Councillor Simche Steinberger who is a councillor in LB Hackney, talking about how he hopes planning devolution can bring communities together.
Key Facts:
Devolution means making decisions at a mroe local level. It can apply at national level and at city level. It does not mean handing over power and responsibility for spending public money to people who are not democratically accountable.
OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET
This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.