WRITTEN EVIDENCE
SUBMITTED BY
THE SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
(SDC) (LOCO 56)
SUMMARY
1. The SDC has long advocated a localist approach that actively
promotes effective, participative systems of governance that engages
people's creativity, energy and diversity. Good governance was
one of the five principles of sustainable development agreed by
the then four UK Governments in 2005, and is a prerequisite to
enable communities to consider the future needs of citizens whilst
managing our assets sustainably.
2. Good public services play a key role in enabling sustainable
communities, and should not be seen in opposition to localism.
They should contribute to enhancing fairness and social cohesion,
and to improving and protecting our natural environment. By taking
a sustainable development approach they can contribute to Government's
goals to be the "greenest government ever"1
as well as helping reduce the deficit through creating efficiency
savings and better outcomes.
3. Decentralisation and localism can lead to more effective
and sustainable service delivery, by reflecting local distinctiveness
and the diverse needs of local people. But it will only do so
if it is conscious policy; it will not happen by accident. Shifting
power away from the centre and out to councils and communities
can only work if it is accompanied by appropriate guidance and
support, including resources where needed, on the strategic direction
that should be taken.
4. There is potential to build on the lessons learnt from
Total Place. The concept of place based budgets has scope to deliver
better, more cost effective and sustainable services through taking
a more integrated and joined-up approach. But this will only happen
if environmental services are included.
5. Sustainable public services require joint working between
local government and local partners. This could be achieved through
the Local Strategic Partnerships if they are to be continued or
Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) if their membership is widened
to include public service providers and community groups and their
remit extended to cover sustainable development impacts.
6. Arrangements for the oversight of local area performance
are necessary to ensure effective, fair and responsible public
service delivery. A clear framework stimulates improvement, enables
comparisons and therefore reduces the risk of too much variation
in the level of service, and encourages the sharing of best practice.
7. There must also be mechanisms put in place to evaluate
whether the desired outcomes are achieved. Local authorities should
be accountable both locally and nationally for their economic,
environmental and social performance.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO
WHITEHALL DEPARTMENTS
8. CLG to encourage local authorities to continue to set out
their long term vision in a Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS),
and LEPs to set out their long term vision covering economic,
environmental and social priorities.
9. Local authorities to be given a statutory duty "to
contribute to sustainable development" in everything they
do.
10. CLG to ensure that sustainable development is made explicit,
and its principles clearly defined, within the new National Planning
Framework.
11. Government to issue advice to local authorities on incorporating
environmental services into place based budgeting, and to give
examples of how and where efficiency savings can be made through
taking a sustainable development approach.
12. If LSPs do not continue then the required membership for
LEPs to be widened to include public service providers and partners
who represent environmental and social perspectives.
13. Government to produce a national statement of sustainable
development principles that outlines what the Government expects
from local authorities and LEPs.
14. CLG to specify the economic, environmental and social
data that local authorities must publish (whether this is the
National Indicator Set or something similar).
15. CLG to mandate the use of a sustainability self assessment
tool for local authorities as part of their performance assessment
and direction setting (potentially the Local Sustainable Development
Lens if the National Indicator Set is still in use).
16. National assessments of local area performance on sustainable
development to be carried out by CLG with Parliamentary scrutiny
by the CLG Committee and/or the Environmental Audit Committee.
THE SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
17. The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) is the Government's
independent adviser on sustainable development, reporting to the
Prime Minister, the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales and
the First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland.
Through advocacy, advice and appraisal, the Commission helps put
sustainable development at the heart of Government policy.
18. The Government is currently exploring how sustainable
development can be further embedded in Government policy decision-making
and operations, which is also being investigated by the Environmental
Audit Committee. The SDC's response to this inquiry does not address
all the questions in detail but focuses on the tensions between
sustainable development and the Government's approach to localism.
Extent to which decentralisation leads to more
effective and efficient service delivery
Sustainable service delivery
19. Effective service delivery meets the needs and aspirations
of communities. It is also sustainable; if it contributes to enhancing
fairness and social cohesion, enhances and protects our natural
environment and considers the future needs of citizens whilst
managing our assets sustainably. It will then contribute to Government's
goals to be the "greenest government ever"2
and to "ensure that taxpayers' money is spent responsibly"3
to help reduce the deficit through creating efficiency savings
and better outcomes. A sustainable development approach:
¾ Tackles "upstream"
causes and prevents needs arising, reducing pressure and spend
on public services
¾ Creates efficiency savings
through taking a more joined up approach and avoiding duplication
¾ Builds resilience by making
communities less dependent on volatile and unsustainable resources
¾ Requires long-term consequences
to be factored into current decisions
¾ Promotes effective, participative
systems of governance
¾ Links approaches across
local, regional, national and international boundaries.
20. Some examples of sustainable service delivery working
in practice and demonstrating multiple benefits and cost savings
are shown below.
¾ Health
¾ The Green Gyms programme
run by BTCV helps people take exercise outdoors whilst participating
in activities that improve the environment. Ninety percent of
participants with poor mental or physical health show an improvement
within seven months. For example, Bexhill and Rother PCT are working
with BTCV at the Rother Green Gym. Up to thirty people attend
each session with a measurable sense of accomplishment and a high
retention rate. One participant said, "I used to get depressed
about the future, but now that is not the case. I have been on
medication for 18 years, but since doing this I have halved the
amount I take. My life is a lot better."4
¾ Transport
¾ A review by the National
Institute for Clinical Evidence (NICE) found that traffic calming
interventions may be useful in enabling children to benefit from
physical activity through play outdoors.5 Portsmouth
introduced a 20mph limit on almost all residential roads in 2008.
The new speed limit was designed to protect pedestrians and cyclists
in residential roads. Initial findings indicate that already the
limit on traffic speeds is having a positive impact on safety
with casualties falling by 15% and total accidents by 13%.6
Other positive impacts include increased physical activity and
subsequent improvements in health and well-being.
¾ Energy Efficiency
¾ Kirklees Council's environment
department has developed a number of projects largely aimed at
improving the energy efficiency of the existing building stock.
A key project has been the Kirklees Council Warm Zone.
¾ It is the largest local
authority home insulation scheme in the UK and offers free loft
and cavity wall insulation to every suitable household in Kirklees,
irrespective of household income. It aims to improve the thermal
comfort and energy efficiency of every suitable home in Kirklees
in order to tackle fuel poverty and reduce district carbon emissions.
¾ Kirklees Council views this
programme of works as the most effective regeneration initiative
possible for the area. This is because of both the savings on
energy bills and the creation of local employment. Kirklees Warm
Zone has estimated that for every £1 invested through the
scheme £5 is returned into the local economy. This gives
a total economic impact of over £80 million from a combination
of direct funding, job creation, household fuel savings and increased
benefits uptake. The works are estimated to have directly created
over 100 jobs per year for three years, and a further 29 indirectly.7
Benefits of decentralisation
21. Decentralisation and localism can lead to more effective
and sustainable service delivery. Reflecting local distinctiveness
and the needs of local people is essential for the success of
a service. Through a deeper understanding of local problems, a
localist approach can help tackle the root causes of a problem
rather than just the symptom, which not only makes people's lives
better but saves tax payers money as well.
22. The SDC has long advocated a localist approach that actively
promotes effective, participative systems of governance that engages
people's creativity, energy and diversity. Such an approach is
more likely to create the opportunity for local people to "co-produce"
services with providers,8 to work together to build
a stronger, more cohesive community and to make more sustainable
choices in their day-to-day lives. An example of this working
in practice is shown below.
¾ Housing refurbishment
¾ Sanford Walk is a self contained
housing co-operative of 14 shared houses and six self contained
flats set up in the 1970s. When refurbishment works were required
in 2002 they decided that they should take the opportunity to
invest their maintenance fund in a programme of works focused
on improving sustainability and reducing their energy consumption.
¾ The group commissioned advice
from the Centre for Sustainable Energy as well as architects and
engineers, successfully applied for a grant from the EST's Innovation
Programme and appointed a project management team. Consultation
with residents was central to the project. Residents were surveyed
at the start of the project to determine their priorities and
ongoing communication was achieved through regular meetings and
information provision.
¾ Sanford has reduced its
carbon emissions by 60% between 2003 and 2008. The group also
consider that overall awareness of energy and environmental issues
have increased, yielding behavioural changes inside and out of
the home.9
Risks of Decentralisation
23. Decentralisation can lead to more effective and sustainable
service delivery if it is accompanied by appropriate guidance
and support, including resources where needed, on the strategic
direction that should be taken to ensure we meet national goals,
such as fairness. Without such guidance and support there is a
danger that public money will be wasted, as each area invests
in separate but duplicated strands of research and development
and less well resourced communities will suffer due to their area's
inability to draw on essential knowledge. An example of where
central guidance and support is essential for community groups
to thrive is shown below.
¾ Government's role in
supporting neighbourhood renewal
¾ The SDC's recent report,
The Future is Local, provides new evidence and expert analysis
to show that local-level partnerships between community groups,
local authorities and private parties provide the most efficient
and cost-effective way to improve local infrastructure and the
wider sustainability of places. Retrofitting housing for energy
and water efficiency at the same time as improving play areas
and local services, for example, will be delivered most efficiently
at the neighbourhood scale.
¾ Testaments from community
groups and from expert contributors highlight that in order to
function to the best of their ability these local partnerships
require structured, accessible support from an independent source.
This may include financial and legal advice, technical knowledge
or facilitation in setting up the partnerships themselves, without
which many would-be initiatives have failed. We recommend that
Government review the myriad sources of support currently available,
identify duplication and gaps, and reconfigure these structures
to be more effective. By providing this recognisable source of
information and mentoring, the Government can provide the conditions
for the partnerships to thrive independently.
24. It is not yet clear exactly what the new decentralised
system will look like or how it will work in practice, but it
is important that successful elements and lessons learnt are carried
forward to ensure the focus on sustainable development is not
lost. The previous arrangements allowed for sustainable development
to run through a range of structures and processes, with vision
for the future outlined in the Sustainable Community Strategies
(SCS), delivered by the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), measured
by the Local Area Agreement (LAA) and local accountability made
public via the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA). Additionally
at the regional level, the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs)
had a duty to "consider sustainable development" in
all their activities and the Regional Strategy (RS) placed sustainable
development at the heart of strategic planning. With the abolishment
of the CAA, the RDAs and RSs, and the uncertainty facing LSPs
and LAAs, it is not clear how the Government will mandate and
facilitate sustainable development at the sub-national level despite
its commitment to "mainstream sustainability, strengthen
the government's performance in this area and put processes in
place to join up activity across government much more effectively".10
25. Local authorities face additional challenges in that they
are expected to play a key role in developing the Big Society.
The SDC has recently completed an extensive piece of research,
which established some key principles relevant to community projects.
The report, The Future is Local, concludes that community
groups and local government need a coordinated programme of support
from central government to develop community projects and greater
community involvement.11 Without this support it is
difficult to see how aspirations for community empowerment can
be realised in an effective manner. Appendix I sets out the report's
full recommendations to government.
Thinking bigger than local
26. Some of the biggest challenges facing us are international
and intergenerational in nature, for instance climate change and
natural resource depletion. These critical issues can be difficult
to address at the local level, especially when a community has
more immediate priorities such as unemployment, poverty and health
problems. The strategic sustainable development approach can be
overlooked and the opportunity to achieve better outcomes in the
short and long term is therefore lost. For example, encouraging
growth in jobs in renewable energy, public transport infrastructure,
ecosystem maintenance and retrofitting the existing building stock
will result in reducing carbon emissions and unemployment, improve
health and wellbeing, contribute to the country's economic recovery
and lessen our impact on the natural environment. Some direction
from central government is needed to ensure this approach is taken
more systematically across the country and not just in pockets.
This could be achieved by transferring the statutory duty to contribute
to sustainable development from the RDAs to local authorities.
Focus on economic priorities
27. Government has asked local authorities to develop proposals
for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), which are to set out
local economic priorities. The SDC is concerned that the LEPs
will focus solely on local economic priorities without addressing
wider sustainability impacts, and therefore it is possible that
short-term economic growth will take precedence over sustainable
development in many areas. Economic renewal must not be addressed
in a vacuum, rather it should be based in a long term vision that
improves everyone's quality of life and manages our assets sustainably.
In order to do this effectively the LEPs need to set out a long
term vision that reflects the SCSs from their area and show how
they are contributing to sustainable development.
Variations by area
28. There is a risk that some areas will have better services,
will be much more attractive places to live, and will contribute
more to national targets to reduce carbon emissions and improve
the natural environment. This does not chime with the Coalition
Government's key objectives of "fairness", as not all
local areas will be delivering the same level of service, and
"responsibility" because not all public services will
be contributing to sustainable development. Whilst the SDC acknowledges
that local areas should determine their own requirements there
does need to be some form of managed process in moving from a
centralist top-down approach to the localism approach to ensure
effective engagement across the breadth of communities to prevent
unintentional differences emerging. Additionally, without some
form of performance assessment system highlighting when areas
are falling behind or exceeding the national average or similar
benchmark, the effectiveness of these different approaches may
not be considered.
More responsibility and fewer resources
29. The Local Government Association has predicted that frontline
council services will face a funding shortfall of up to £20
billion a year by 2015 if budget cuts in the Government's spending
review are imposed.12 The shift of power away from
Westminster to councils and communities means that they will have
greater responsibility for delivering frontline services at the
same time as having their budgets cut. Councils might then be
forced to focus limited resources on immediate priorities, resulting
in greater financial expenditure over the longer-term and more
sustainable and efficient plans being abandoned. This can be addressed
if they are required by Government to contribute to sustainable
development and to continue to work towards the vision set out
in their SCSs.
Potential conflict with the planning reform
30. The Government's objectives for the Planning System include
returning decision-making powers on housing and planning to local
councils, radical reform to give neighbourhoods far more ability
to determine the shape of the places in which their inhabitants
live, and publishing a simple and consolidated national planning
framework covering all forms of development and setting out national
economic, environmental and social priorities. Within this reformed
planning system a presumption in favour of sustainable development
will be created, although at this stage it is not clear how this
is being defined or how it will be monitored. Whilst the localism
aspirations for the Planning System are welcome there are some
issues that need to be addressed at a strategic level to ensure
resilience and intergenerational fairness, and to help deal with
cross-boundary issues. For example, it is not clear how the new
approach will work for factors such as climate change adaptation
and international biodiversity legislation where a localist approach
may run counter to the needs of the country.
31. In order to meet the reform's aspirations, the local planning
system will need to consider the economic, environmental and social
dimensions on its area to reflect the aspirations of their communities.
Therefore, there is a risk of conflict between the planning reforms
sustainable, more holistic integrated approach with the potentially
narrow, economic focused approach of the LEPs.
32. The variety of spatial scales being proposed for LEPs
also makes it difficult to see how potential conflicts will be
managed across administrative boundaries. Problems may arise if,
for example, there is a proposal for a cross-boundary development,
such as a trunk road, that an LEP or multiple LEPs are in favour
of because it will create more jobs, but that goes against the
objectives of a local plan because it will damage an environmental
asset or increase social inequity. These types of issues used
to be addressed at the regional level, which meant that sustainable
development had to be the basis for the decision making process.
We understand that CLG will not be issuing guidance to local planners
to resolve these types of conflicts, so how will these issues
be resolved and how will the Government ensure that sustainable
development is considered?
33. Recommendations:
¾ Local authorities to be
given a statutory duty "to contribute to sustainable development"
in everything they do.
¾ CLG to encourage local authorities
to continue to set out their long term vision in a Sustainable
Community Strategy.
¾ LEPs to also set out their
long term vision for the local area that covers economic, environmental
and social priorities.
¾ CLG to ensure that sustainable
development is explicit within the new National Planning Framework.
THE LESSONS
FOR DECENTRALISATION
FROM TOTAL
PLACE
34. The concept of place based budgets has huge potential
for delivering better, more cost effective and sustainable services
through taking a more integrated and joined-up approach. Unfortunately
the Total Place pilots did not include environmental services,
such as improving the natural environment, increasing energy efficiency
and adapting to climate change, as they were areas of relatively
low spend. Yet environmental services deliver multiple outcomes
for communities and can show long term cost benefits.
35. For example, one of the themes in the Total Place pilot
in Lewisham was on health and social care. It focused on greater
joint working between the Council and NHS Lewisham, in particular,
establishing joint budget and organisational arrangements. This
has resulted in more efficient service delivery and better assessment
of need.13 However, an opportunity was missed to look
at the types of services being commissioned and to take a much
more joined up approach to public health delivery. The environmental
determinants of health are rarely considered, yet they play a
key role in a preventing ill health and disease. For instance,
improving access to green space, mitigating climate change, promoting
active travel and reducing traffic, and improving domestic energy
efficiency and other household conditions can all improve health
and wellbeing. Whilst there may be cost increases in the short
term this will result in long-term cost savings to the NHS. An
example of an innovative approach is shown below.
¾ Health, transport and
planning
¾ Bristol City Council and
NHS Bristol have placed a public health expert in the council
transport department. Their role is to help planners and transport
engineers understand how they influence public health challenges
such as obesity, mental health and cardiovascular disease, and
how they can create environments which encourage people to walk
or cycle instead of driving cars. The post also contributes health
evidence to transport consultations and bids and helps facilitate
programmes for Bristol's Department of Public Health to reduce
injuries and fatalities on the roads.14
36. There are various tools that can support local partnerships
to work well together through experimenting with combining budgets
and delivering solutions to cross-cutting issues. An example of
such a tool is shown below:
¾ Learning tool
¾ The Planit-Sustainability
learning simulation has been developed in the Northwest region.
It is an interactive game, whereby local service providers work
as a group to change an unsustainable virtual community into a
more sustainable one. It helps key decision-makers to better understand
how their decisions and those made by other organisations can
either hinder or help sustainable development and how working
together on cross cutting issues can make a real difference to
the economy, environment and society. Each player in the group
has a budget which they have to allocate on a yearly basis in
the most sustainable way possible. At the end of the session the
team review the sustainability of their imaginary community.
¾ According to the Northwest
RDA, "Delegates were astounded when this sophisticated computer
simulation demonstrated the real difference they could make within
their communities through joint decision-making. The delegates
then pledged to work together to improve their local communities
for the future."15
37. Recommendation:
¾ Government, in consultation
with local authority associations, to issue advice to local authorities
on incorporating environmental services into place based budgeting
and to give examples of how and where efficiency savings can be
made through taking a sustainable development approach.
THE ROLE
OF LOCAL
GOVERNMENT AND
OTHER LOCAL
AGENTS
38. The role of local government in a decentralised model
of local public service delivery should be to:
¾ Provide the strategic direction
ie what needs to be done to create a sustainable community.
¾ Identify the community's
needs.
¾ Facilitate the process for
local people and partners to decide how to meet the community's
needs.
¾ Coordinate and enable public
service delivery.
¾ Publish data on economic,
environmental and social performance to enable local people to
hold them to account.
39. A sustainable development approach to delivering public
services requires joint working between local government, local
partners and other stakeholders. A local partnership, such as
an LSP, is likely to be the best means of encouraging greater
joint working between service providers. However, it is not yet
clear whether LSPs will continue to be required by the new Government.
If they are abandoned then the LEP may fill this gap for economic
regeneration but it is not clear what other arrangements will
be put in place for the myriad of other services to be planned
and delivered at local level.
40. Building partnerships around a particular issue can help
provide focus, but the focus and recommended membership for LEPs
is currently too narrow to deliver the wide range of sustainable
public services and may put economic priorities in conflict with
wider sustainability ones. There is also potential for conflict
between the LEP's objectives and SCSs, if they are to be continued.
These issues may put the long-term viability of LEPs in jeopardy
and may not serve the community's needs.
41. Recommendation:
¾ If LSPs do not continue
then the required membership for LEPs to be widened to include
public service providers and partners who represent environmental
and social perspectives.16
OVERSIGHT OF
AND ACCOUNTABILITY
FOR LOCAL
PUBLIC SERVICE
DELIVERY
42. The abolishment of the Audit Commission and the CAA will
leave a huge gap in the oversight of and accountability for local
public service delivery. The SDC worked with the Audit Commission
over several years to embed the assessment of sustainable development
in the CAA. After the first round of assessments the SDC carried
out a review of the extent to which sustainable development principles
were evident in CAA judgements. The review concluded that, although
there were a number of areas for improvement, on the whole the
SDC was impressed by the quality of the judgements. With an absence
of area-wide assessment the SDC would like to know how the Government
intends to monitor and assess economic, environmental and social
performance, or what it will require in terms of reporting standards
for local authorities and LEPs.
OVERSIGHT TO
STIMULATE IMPROVEMENT
43. Oversight of local area performance is necessary to ensure
effective, fair and responsible public service delivery. As mentioned
above, there is a risk that local areas will fail to address international
and intergenerational issues in the absence of strategic guidance
from central government and a performance assessment system. The
CAA considered sustainability in all of its judgements thereby
providing a driver for sustainable development in local areas
and stimulating improvement.
44. Oversight of performance also enables comparisons between
different local areas and the sharing of best practice. It pushes
areas of underperformance to improve and reduces the risk of variations
by area in terms of service delivery and accessibility.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Local accountability
45. CLG intends to increase the accountability of local authorities
to local people through greater data transparency. So far the
data specified by CLG that must be made public does not include
area-wide sustainability criteria. Local people will need data
regarding economic, environmental and social performance in order
to make judgements about the overall sustainability of their area
and value for money being achieved with public funds. But local
people will need more than just raw data; they will need help
in the analysis and interpretation of this data, preferably from
an independent body. If no support is provided to the general
public in analysing this data, there is a great risk that local
authorities will not be held to account or that only certain issues
will be reviewed. For example, people may focus on council spend
rather than on local habitat loss which is harder to give an economic
value but is critical to the sustainability of an area.
46. The data required to assess the sustainability of an area
could be met by the National Indicator Set (NIS), but it is not
yet known whether it will continued be or not. The SDC developed
proposals for a Local Sustainable Development Lens: a voluntary
basket of local indicators from the NIS that can be used to guide
and track progress towards sustainable development at the local
level.17 The lens could be used by local authorities
to self-evaluate and benchmark themselves against each other.
National accountability
47. National, international and intergenerational issues will
need to be assessed at the national level. Every local area should
be contributing their fair share to meeting the bigger challenges,
such as climate change, poverty, health inequalities, unemployment
and natural resource depletion. But progress made against these
challenges should not be assessed or considered as singular issues;
they need to be assessed using a sustainable development lens
to check their connectivity with other issues and whether multiple
benefits have been delivered.
48. National assessments of local area performance on sustainable
development should be carried out by CLG with Parliamentary scrutiny
by the CLG Committee and/or the Environmental Audit Committee
and then made available to local communities. Such as assessment
would ideally be made against a national statement of sustainable
development principles that outlines what the Government expects
from local authorities.
49. Recommendations:
¾ Government to produce a
national statement of sustainable development principles that
outlines what the Government expects from local authorities and
LEPs.
¾ CLG to specify the economic,
environmental and social data that local authorities must publish
(whether this is the National Indicator Set or something similar).
¾ CLG to mandate the use of
a sustainability self assessment tool for local authorities (potentially
the Local Sustainable Development Lens if the National Indicator
Set is still in use).
¾ National assessments of
local area performance on sustainable development to be carried
out by CLG with Parliamentary scrutiny by the CLG Committee and/or
the Environmental Audit Committee.
REFERENCES
1 Prime Minister's speech to DECC on 14 May 2010.
http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/latest-news/2010/05/central-government-emissions-to-be-cut-pm-2-50121
2 Prime Minister's speech to DECC on 14 May 2010.
http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/latest-news/2010/05/central-government-emissions-to-be-cut-pm-2-50121
3 HM Government (2010) The Coalition: Our programme
for government.
4 Sustainable Development Commission (2007). Healthy
Futures #6: The natural environment, health and wellbeing.
Available at
http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications/downloads/HF6-final.pdf
5 National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
(2008). Promoting and creating built or natural environments
that encourage and support physical activity. NICE public
health guidance 8. London: NICE.
6 Department for Transport (2009) Interim Evaluation
of the Implementation of 20 mph Speed Limits in Portsmouth.
Available at
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/research/rsrr/theme4/interimeval20mphspeedlimits.pdf
7 Sustainable Development Commission (2010) The
Future is Local: Empowering communities to improve their neighbourhoods.
Available at
http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/the-future-is-local.html
8 "Co-production" according to nef is
based on the premise that "People's needs are better met
when they are involved in an equal and reciprocal relationship
with public service professionals and others, working together
to get things done."
http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/right-here-right-now
9 Sustainable Development Commission (2010) The
Future is Local: Empowering communities to improve their neighbourhoods.
Available at
http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/the-future-is-local.html
10 Defra Written Ministerial Statement on Defra's
Arms Length Bodies.
http://ww2.defra.gov.uk/2010/07/22/arms-length-bodies-statement/
11 Sustainable Development Commission (2010) The
Future is Local: Empowering communities to improve their neighbourhoods.
Available at
http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/the-future-is-local.html
12 Local Government Association
http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=13748140
13 Lewisham Strategic Partnership (2010). Total
Place in Lewisham.
http://www.lewishamstrategicpartnership.org.uk/docs/Total%20Place%201.pdf
14 Improvement and Development Agency (2009). The
role of infrastructure and town planning in health improvement
case study.
15 Northwest Regional Development Agency
http://www.nwda.co.uk/news--events/press-releases/200401/training-to-save-the-planet.aspx
16 Membership could include: local authority executive
councillors and officers; health; police; higher/further education;
voluntary sector umbrella groups; Jobcentre Plus; the LSC; the
fire service; the Chamber of Commerce; individual businesses;
housing associations; faith organisations; transport authority
or operators; sport and leisure agencies; the community network;
residents' groups; and black and minority ethnic groups.
17 See http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/local-sustainable-development-lens.html
for more information.
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