Strategic authorities should be placed under legal obligation to co-produce decisions with residents, says thinktank

New statutory obligations should be introduced in order to devolve some decision-making powers over planning, local budgeting and managing public assets to the community level, a think tank has said.

Details: 28.Jul.2025

In a research report titled Centralisation, local decline and the future of community power, thinktank Localis said that devolving powers to the community level would help tackle the rise of political disenfranchisement.

The report said that successive governments have recognised the rising tide of popular discontent, but responded with "rhetoric" rather than reform”.

"Without meaningful statutory provisions for double devolution [...] this sense of disenfranchisement will only deepen," according to the thinktank's senior research, Callin McLinden.

The report said the Government should introduce a statutory framework that can accompany the English Devolution Bill by enshrining a principle of double devolution into law.

Defining "double devolution", the report said: "In contrast to typical models that simply transfer, or more aptly, delegate power from Whitehall to local authorities, double devolution passes power further through councils to communities themselves."

According to Localis, the newly published devolution bill's emphasis on creating larger, unitary councils and shifting Whitehall's role from delivery to support creates space for community empowerment initiatives.

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It added: "However, despite the title of the bill suggesting a transformative agenda for community empowerment, the actual provisions fall well short of systemic community empowerment."

It called for power-sharing agreements between councils and community-based, civil society organisations to "become standard, not exceptional", and said the capacity for neighbourhoods to set up such organisations "must be actively supported by central government".

To support this, the report said obligations should guarantee local rights to:

Initiate participatory processes in local budgeting, planning and health policy decision.
Co-manage public assets, with additional support for those in areas of deprivation.
Draw down multi-year funding, independent of competitive bidding with accompanying investment advice.

Commenting on the report, Callin McLinden said: "If we're serious about democratic renewal and local engagement, it must start with tangible statutory assurances and mechanisms of community power, not delegated from the top down, but built and enabled from the ground up.

"This means going further than the recent English Devolution and Community Empowerment bill to enshrine principles of double devolution into law, supporting community agency within upcoming neighbourhood governance structures, and embedding participatory processes and the co-ownership and management of local assets—learning key lessons from the world's most accountable democratic systems, particularly at the local level.

"Without this, we risk ceding the future to those who exploit disillusionment without offering meaningful solutions."

Adam Carey