Rural Housing

In another element of what I suppose is the Big Society, there is a proposal for local communities to hold referenda to determine whether to build affordable housing. If 80% vote yes, the plan goes ahead irrespective of what the planning authority thinks. Critics point out that this is another blocking measure, not an enabling one as the likelihood of getting 80% of the community to vote is very small and moreover they would all have to vote yes.

There is a thread appearing in a lot of these ideas. Others include parents setting up schools against the wishes of the LEA and all schools being encouraged to become Academies, whatever the position of the authorities locally, out of whose supervision Academies pass. The thread is gesture policies which satisfy an ideological tenet, but in fact will not work, or will not work well, or will achieve an outcome opposite to the aim. Gesture politics is fine in opposition, but gesture government is another thing altogether. Cameron and Clegg need to be careful. There is the potential for much to go wrong.

If localism is the aim and it should be, the best way forward is to unravel much of the local government act of the Heath government in the seventies and restore the power of Town and Rural District Councils and enhance the power of Parish Councils on issues affecting their communities. This would empower localism through local democracy, the best way to achieve balance with purpose, based on local need and preference.

The Heath act destroyed the fabric of communities built up over centuries on the grounds that bigger would be more efficient and better value. Experience has shown that it has delivered neither of these things. Communities feel detached from the power that governs them. Policy enforced locally does not accord with local wishes. The solution is not to bybass local government, rather to restore its authority. From Heath through Thatcher the Tory party has shown a disdain for local government. The Lib Dem members of the coalition need to keep an eye on this. The Tories say they are now in favour and this may indeed be the case, but the government needs to come forward with proposals less half baked.