The Localism Act: Special Report

Ministers have made some pretty bold statements about the Localism Act and the freedoms they believe it will give local authorities. The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government argued in typically colourful fashion that the legislation “pulls down the Whitehall barricades so it [central government] will no longer call the shots over communities”.

Whether the Act will achieve all that Eric Pickles and his colleagues hope it will, whether there will be a genuine shift in power and an end to ‘Whitehall knows best’, remains to be seen. Many in local government may well be sceptical, having heard similar promises – although perhaps ones delivered with less fervour – in the past.

There  is no denying, however, the ambitious scope and sheer weight (at 438 pages) of the legislation. One thing that is also certain is that it will significantly raise expectations  among councillors, senior officers and the public as to what local authorities can do. The main reason for this is the much-vaunted and long-demanded general power  of competence, but the theme of greater freedom and flexibility – accompanied by greater responsibility – runs across the Coalition’s reforms.

Local government lawyers will have a key role to play in managing these expectations  and making sure that they are met in a way which fits with the new legislative framework. They will also have to deal with those provisions in the Act – say, for example, in relation to standards of member conduct – which, some have argued, are seriously flawed and ill- thought through.

The threat of legal challenges to council decision- making and the potential for adverse court decisions will not go away, despite the Lord Chief Justice’s recent  warning  to judges not to stray from their proper function and seek to administer the responsibilities of local authorities. In many ways this threat  is likely to be greater in the short term as the new legislation, to be supplemented by regulations, beds down  and its true parameters are revealed.

The aim of this special report is to help local government lawyers and their clients understand the key proposals in the Act and identify the principal issues with which they will have to grapple going forwards.

There will undoubtedly  be challenging times ahead – but hopefully rewarding ones too.

Philip Hoult, Editor, Local Government Lawyer