For far too long, Britain has been an overly centralised country, which has hoarded power in Whitehall and Westminster. Over decades, this has baked in regional inequality and deprived communities of the ability to make decisions which impact their lives.

The consequences have been that many people and many communities feel powerless to affect meaningful change – leading to a loss of trust and belief in political institutions. To rebuild trust, councils will need to take lead in building new, strengthened relationships with communities.

Our new policy paper, Empowering Communities through Empowered Councils, seeks to show why co-operative relationships between councils and communities are so important and how they can be developed by proactive councils and councillors.

The relationship between councils and communities can lay the foundations for ‘double devolution’ – in which not only councillors are empowered but also residents and communities. This form of partnership is about providing communities with the agency to make change and engage in decision making at a local level – helping to co-produce services, regenerate local high streets and bring the community together.

The opportunity for ‘double devolution’ is advanced by the Government’s new English Devolution & Community Empowerment Bill and the Pride in Place Programme. The Bill is a major landmark in decentralisation, creating strengthened councils with new powers to influence their local area. Contained in the Bill is a new Community Right to Buy (CRTB), which enables community groups to more effectively purchase assets of community value (ACVs). This can include assets such as shops, pubs, music venues, sports facilities, civic buildings, swimming pools and more.

Each local authority is required to develop effective neighbourhood governance – laying the groundwork for strengthened community power. As part of the Pride in Place programme, which will deliver a decade of funding to 250 of the most deprived areas, each place will be required to form a Neighbourhood Board. These will be community-led decision-making bodies, comprised of councillors, residents, MPs and community groups, which will determine how to spend the funding to deliver regeneration. Over time, these Boards will evolve into fully fledged community-led and owned entities – including co-operatives.

The national changes have created the opportunity to permanently embed stronger co-operative relationships between councils and communities. The paper lays out how councils can start now in building relationships which empower and deliver change in partnership with communities. To learn more and read the full report, please click here: Read the report.