Onward Note
Parish councils have a reputation for parochialism. But they can be engines for local improvement and could form an important pillar of the Government’s efforts to level up. That was the conclusion of Onward’s latest paper, Double Devo, that on Friday argued for ministers to complement their existing plans to enhance county and city government with strengthened governance at neighbourhood level.
Our analysis shows clearly that the presence of town and parish councils is associated with stronger communities. Fully parished local authorities have, on average, over five times as many community assets as fully unparished areas, as well as higher rates of volunteering and charitable giving. This correlation may be partly because town and parish councils focus on the issues that matter most to neighbourhoods: the maintenance of village halls and green space, local anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood planning issues.
Yet nearly two-thirds (63%) of England is not covered by a town or parish council. This democratic deficit is most acute in the parts of the country the Government most wants to level up: people living in Red Wall are less than half as likely to have a town or parish council as the rest of England, with just over one-fifth (21%) of people in the Red Wall covered by such a council, compared to almost half (47%) across the rest of England. Many post-industrial towns have either low levels of town and parish coverage, such as Wigan, Hartlepool, and Darlington, or no town or parish councils at all, as in Blackpool, Stoke-on-Trent, and Rochdale.
In light of these findings, we are urging the Government to double down on devolution in three important ways. First, we should extend local democracy to places where it is currently absent, by introducing an automatic ballot to ask voters if they want a local town or parish council. Second, we should ensure town councils are properly resourced by earmarking 25% of the forthcoming Infrastructure Levy for them. Finally, we should entrust local communities with greater powers to take control of services in their area, through a new right to pull down responsibilities from the local authority when services are not up to scratch.
These ideas were backed by a coalition of Conservative MPs representing communities across the country, as well as experts on local government, including Power to Change and the National Association of Local Councils. We believe that when people are given the tools to improve their community, they can achieve far more than a Whitehall strategy document. By rolling out town and parish councils across the whole of England and entrusting them with greater responsibilities, the government can spur a new wave of local innovation to both level places up and deepen people’s roots.
Luke Stanley, Senior Researcher at Onward
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