Thank you for contacting me recently regarding localism and the ‘Keep it Local’ campaign.
I agree we need to do far more to enable local communities to take more of their own decisions and to have greater control over local services. Currently, local communities cannot influence many of the things that matter most to them – public services, transport, housing and their high street. As a result, local priorities often go unaddressed and efficiencies are missed.
The current Government has failed to devolve power and the most deprived areas have faced the biggest cuts. Indeed, the spending power for every household in the most deprived areas in England has been cut by 16 times as much as the ten least deprived.
Labour has a better plan to devolve more power to our communities. We will introduce an English Devolution Act, devolving £30 billion in funding over five years, allowing local communities to retain 100% of business rate income growth and giving local areas greater control over vital services such as transport – setting bus routes and fares, and bringing local trains, buses and trams into a single network.
Labour will also ensure that local government funding is distributed more fairly and in longer-term settlements so that communities can plan ahead, address local concerns and deliver savings. We will give new powers to communities to stop the spread of payday lenders on their high street and to decide whether they want to limit the number of gambling or fast food outlets.
I believe these measures will help empower local communities, harness local knowledge and skills and provide efficiencies in local services. I know these are points that have also been raised by the Keep It Local campaign.
Thank you once again for writing to me and for sharing your views on this extremely important issue.