Upcoming Events
Dec 07, 15:00-16:15 (private roundtable, invitation only)
Healthy Knowledge: Can improving diet literacy reduce health inequality
This is a private roundtable event with Dr Luke Evans MP and Rt Hon Damian Green MP. The discussion will focus on the ways in which nutrition literacy can be improved in low-income communities, and how this will enable better health outcomes in these areas, in line with the National Health Strategy.
Dec 09, 08:30-10:00 (private event, invitation only)
Business Network Breakfast
This is a private breakfast for Onward’s Business Network, with Lord Gavin Barwell and Tom Newton Dunn, providing an opportunity for business leaders to discuss the current political and policy environment.
Jan 18, 11:00-12:00
Making it Smarter: Using technology to rethink the capabilities of UK manufacturing
This event will consider the future of UK manufacturing in light of the digital transformation needed to unlock the sector’s true potential.
Sign up to this event here.
Onward Note
Up and down the country, councillors and clerks are working with their communities to protect and improve the places they live. But they are doing so with one hand tied behind their back, with fewer powers and resources than other forms of local government. This system undercuts the impressive work that town and parish councils already do to help their communities take ownership of their place. It is time that we recognised their potential and gave them the powers and resources to take back control.
This is partly about money. Of course, parish and town councils can raise money through the local precept, an additional levy on top of council tax that raised nearly £600 million last year. But the small sums of money this generates are rarely enough for the town and parish councils to lead genuinely transformative regeneration in their area.
In our recent report, Double Devo, we recommended that town and parish councils that had set a vision for the community through a neighbourhood plan should have access to more funding. Our proposed reforms to the Infrastructure Levy would give town and parish councils an extra £175,000 a year. That money could resource new community facilities or be used to upgrade the built environment.
But it is about more than money too: it is about power. Even if a town or parish council has the resources and ambition, they may not have the right powers to carry them forward. The 2011 Localism Act brought with it a whole host of powers for local government, including the General Power of Competence (GPC), allowing councils to act as individuals. But if town and parish councils also want GPC rights, their clerks have to take on additional training and their council elections have a two-thirds contested quota.
This asymmetry puts town and parish councils on the back foot and pushes responsibility up to higher levels of government. To prevent town and parish councils from being sidelined, we recommend that GPC rights should be extended down to town and parish councils on the same terms as the rest of local government. This is not revolutionary, but a necessary step if local leaders are to genuinely help their areas to level up.
With the right resources and tools to take ownership of their place, the responsibilities of town and parish councils can be increased in a sustainable way. So, moving forward, communities have the allies they need and deserve to take back control of their place.
Jenevieve Treadwell, Researcher at Onward
A version of this note was published as a blog article for the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), and can be found here.
Quick Links
 theguardian.com What with disrupted education, rising rents and low wages, it’s hard to be optimistic about the supposed end of the pandemic, says Guardian commissioning editor Alex Mistlin |
 thetimes.co.uk I have wanted to weep in recent months. What a waste of an 80-seat majority, and how awful that voters who had been let down serially, and who had voted… |
