Sustainable Communities Bill

Written by Julia Goldsworthy MP and published in Western Morning News on Thu 13th Jul 2006

For the many readers who have seen a local school, shop or post office close, or a house bought by a second home owner, the notion of "ghost town" Britain will be a very familiar one. And with the pace of these changes increasing every year, it's not surprising that many communities feel their needs are being overlooked by a centrally controlling government. But for people living and working in our communities, the reasons behind this decline are obvious and the need for a solution is urgent.

That's why I will be presenting the Sustainable Communities Bill to Parliament and supporting it at every stage to do all I can to get it on the Statute Book. I am doing so because I believe it is vital that local communities are empowered to recognise and deal with their own problems.

At present our communities are becoming increasingly unsustainable. The ever rising numbers of second homes have fuelled rapid house price inflation. The direct result is that more homes are put out of reach of working families and the stock of local housing is reduced. But there are also knock on effects. Because many houses stand empty for long periods of time, there is insufficient support for local shops and post offices. Village schools are more likely to become threatened by falling rolls. Public transport becomes less well supported, and the residents who remain are left more isolated.

Towns as well as villages suffer too. Within my constituency of Falmouth and Camborne, the town centres find themselves constantly having to compete with out of town shopping centres. Between 2000-2005, Britain, supposedly a nation of 'shop-keepers' lost over 8000 independent grocery stores. British people quite understandably feel that they have lost control of their communities and have little influence over decisions that affect their general way of life.

What is clear at present is that our communities - especially in rural and peripheral areas are becoming increasingly unsustainable in social, environmental and economic terms. There are many interlocking reasons for this, and it is very often central government policy that makes matters worse, not better.

It is easy to identify areas in which this Bill would ensure that local communities would be protected from poor decisions made in London. I can think of many examples where greater local empowerment could make a significant positive difference.

For example, it could enable the value of our Post Office network to be recognised and supported. Instead of the Government's approach to the Rural Post Office network, which has included a Minister describing Post Offices as 'inefficient physical structures', the socio / economic benefits that Post Offices offer our local communities could be protected.

The Bill could also help ensure that housing policy could be determined more locally and more accountably than it is at present. Instead of our current proposals which look set only to increase the population of our urban areas, local areas could choose, if they wished, to spread the availability of new and affordable housing across our communities so that working families could afford to live in the villages in which they grew up and their children could attend the local school, thus ensuring that the community was kept alive and had a viable future.

The Bill could also put forward changes to the planning process, so that permission was required to convert a full time home into a second home, to give them greater control over the impact of second homes in a community.

But these are just examples of changes that I personally would like to see. The Bill would allow everyone to have their say. While it would be the local authorities that are ultimately responsible for delivering these policies, they would be required to engage local individuals and organisations in a participation process about what they would like to see. And the Secretary of State would need to support our local authorities in meeting these goals. Instead of a centrally driven, one size fits all approach, local knowledge would be accorded the importance it deserves.

At a recent public meeting which I attended in Camborne, it was clear that this Bill has a high level of support. Within Parliament it has considerable cross-party support. Not just in Cornwall, but in communities across the country, people want a greater say in how their town or village is run. They are desperate for public services that reflect their needs and decisions to be taken which fully consider the wishes of local people. The Sustainable Communities Bill does just that and I will continue to do all I can to get this legislation onto the Statute Book.