Conservatives to devolve £1M down to ward councillors to halt
community decline
Senior Conservative MP praises the Cabinet’s proposal
South Gloucestershire Council’s Conservative Cabinet has approved plans to devolve £1M of funding down to ward councillors to help tackle community decline.
The proposal comes in response to the Sustainable Communities Act, which is designed to give Councils new powers to improve the social, economic and environmental well-being of their area. The decision to devolve resources down to individual councillors is seen as implementing the spirit of the Act.
When the Council’s housing stock was transferred to Merlin housing association, the residual ‘Housing Revenue Account’ balance of £1.3M remained with the Council. A commitment was made that it would be used for the benefit of the areas in which it was generated.
Whilst £0.3M has already been committed to improve CCTV infrastructure, the Conservative Cabinet is proposing that that the remaining balance of £1M be split between wards on the basis of the number of former council houses transferred.
Cllr John Calway, Leader of South Gloucestershire Council, said:
“We support the Sustainable Communities Act because we are determined to do what we can to halt community decline. But it is not just down to the Council, individual councillors have an important role to play in this too.”
“By devolving this funding down, we are giving each councillor a powerful tool to improve the social, economic and environmental well-being of their community, which are the central aims of the Sustainable Communities Act.”
The Council’s approach has been praised by Shadow Secretary for Communities and Local Government, Caroline Spelman MP. She said:
"I am delighted to see a Conservative-run Council implementing the spirit of the Sustainable Communities Act.
The decision by South Gloucestershire Conservatives to devolve this funding down to ward level will strengthen the role of councillors as genuine local champions and enable a bottom-up response to what's going wrong in our communities.”
She added:
“Once central government provides a breakdown of the amount of public money spent in each local area in a few months time, local communities will be able to exercise new powers to redirect the cash towards residents' priorities and therefore reduce the reach of Whitehall and its unelected quangos."
The Conservative budget proposals are to be debated by the whole Council on 18 February.
