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Communities White Paper 'ignores community groups' says coalition

Finance | Tania Mason | 14 Jul 2008

The government’s new Communities White Paper devolves power too far to individual citizens, and should give more emphasis to local community groups, according to a coalition of civil society organisations.

The coalition, led by the Carnegie UK Trust and comprising the National Association of Local Councils, Urban Forum, Action for Market Towns and Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE), claims the White Paper “ignores the power of community action”.

They are lobbying the government to support a concept called ‘community led planning’, which they describe as “about local people and community groups coming together to develop a plan for the future of an area, to tackle local problems and influence local services”.

The group supplied a detailed submission about community led planning to the consultation that preceded the White Paper, outlining how around 4,000 UK communities have successfully used the approach to simplify multiple voices into an “inclusive community-wide view”.

“We think the government is missing a trick by not fully recognising that body of evidence,” said Chris Wade, chief executive of Action for Market Towns.

The coalition plans to continue making the case for financial investment and political support for community led planning as the White Paper makes its way through the parliamentary process.

£70m Communitybuilders fund

The Communities in control: real people, real power White Paper was unveiled by communities secretary Hazel Blears (pictured) last week.

Included within it was the commitment to a £70m Communitybuilders fund, a joint programme between the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Office of the Third Sector, which they described as their attempt to respond to third sector demands for more support for community groups.

The £70m will be offered through a mix of grants and loans, and a competitive tender process will be held to select the organisation that will distribute the money on behalf of the government. Funding is expected to begin next spring.

The White Paper also contained proposals for a £7.5m Empowerment Fund to support third sector organisations to establish schemes to boost community leadership skills; consultation on a stronger partnership board between the DCLG and the OTS, and expanded ideas for an asset transfer unit to speed up the transfer of community buildings to the voluntary sector.

‘Rag-bag of proposals’ say Tories

After Blears commended the White Paper to the House of Commons last Tuesday, the shadow communities spokesman Eric Pickles discredited the document as “essentially harmless” and said such a “rag-bag of proposals” was no substitute for policy.

But acevo’s chief executive Stephen Bubb welcomed the paper and its “central recognition that the third sector will be crucial to empowering communities”.

Bubb said: “I spoke to Hazel before the launch and she was very clear that she sees the third sector as key to this agenda and that local councils need to take that fact on board in a much more proactive way....clearly this is a case of the pudding being in the eating.”

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