1 Introduction
1. The purpose of this Report is to provide an
account of the Communities and Local Government Committee's activities
during Session 2008-09. As well as serving as a progress report
to the Liaison Committee, we hope this Report will also prove
a useful reference source to those with a general interest in
the work of our Committee, and to those with a wider interest
in how Parliament carries out its scrutiny functions.
2. Our work this Session has been dominated by
the inquiry we began at the very end of last Session and which
we entitled The Balance of Power: central and local government.
This inquiry, which followed the March 2007 Lyons report into
local government,[1] goes
to the heart of the work not only of the department we scrutinise,
Communities and Local Government, but of many other government
departments too. Our report, published in May 2009, addressed
some fundamental questions about the governance and constitution
of this country.
3. We have not, however, been concerned only
with grand constitutional questions. As our report The Balance
of Power pointed out, that inquiry addressed issues which
affect individuals and their local communities very directly.
Other inquiries we have undertaken this year have been similarly
grounded in the experience of local people. In Market Failure?:
can the traditional market survive?, we looked at local markets,
one of the oldest forms of commerce. Our inquiry into The Supporting
People programme considered services for some of the most
vulnerable in society. And our ongoing scrutiny of the Government's
response to the effect of the economic downturn on its housing
policy bears directly on one of the most basic human needs: housing.
1 Lyons inquiry into local government: Place-shaping:
a shared ambition for the future of local government, Sir Michael
Lyons (London 2007). Back
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