The purpose of the Bill is to: create greater opportunities for community and individual empowerment, reform local and regional governance arrangements to promote economic regeneration and continue the Government’s programme of housing reform.

The main elements of the Bill are:

• Empowering communities and individuals by involving them in the design and delivery of local public services and other measures designed to promote local democracy and larger numbers of active citizens, possibly including giving individuals a right of response from their local authority to local petitions;

• Extending the powers of the new social housing regulator, to apply to local authority landlords (subject to the new regulator being established by the Housing and Regeneration Bill currently being considered by Parliament);

• Implementing recommendations from the review of sub-national economic development and regeneration to streamline regional governance, integrate Regional Economic and Spatial Strategies and make Regional Development Agencies statutory  planning bodies;

• Strengthening the role of local authorities in promoting and delivering economic development, including, subject to consultation,  implementing a proposed new statutory duty on local authorities to assess local economic conditions, and supporting greater collaboration between local authorities in this area, including, subject to consultation, the potential to develop statutory partnerships;

• Implementing recommendations from Lord Sharman’s report to give the Audit Commission a power to appoint an auditor to certain local government entities, and to issue a public interest report about those entities if appropriate;

• Improving the operation of construction contracts.

The main benefits of the Bill are:

• Empowering citizens and communities new tools to become active citizens, involved in the design and delivery of local public services and improving their communities;

• Giving all social housing tenants, regardless of whether their landlord is a local authority or housing association, more choice, protection and influence over how their homes are managed. The new social housing regulator will reduce unnecessary regulation for good landlords and put in place a clearer system of standards;

• Enabling regional and local bodies to do more to promote economic development and regeneration by streamlining regional governance arrangements and introducing single Regional Strategies - whilst ensuring that local authorities and other partners help to shape priorities for the region, using evidence from a potential new economic assessment duty;

• Increasing transparency and public accountability, and reducing the risk to public money by allowing the Audit Commission to appoint auditors to certain local government

In addition to the proposals in the Bill, the Government is also planning a range of non-legislative measures.

• Set out guidance, based on the advice of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, on taking forward partial reviews of Regional Spatial Strategies so that by 2011, plans reflect the Government’s target of 240,000 new homes per year;

• Establish the new Homes and Communities Agency, bringing together housing and regeneration funding and delivery expertise;
• Improve the design quality of new homes and communities through the skills and capacity programmes being provided by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and Academy for Sustainable Communities.

As part of this programme the Government is currently consulting to 30 June on proposed locations for up to ten new Eco-towns, providing up to 100 000 homes. The next steps following consultation will be to:

• Publish a draft planning policy statement for eco-towns and a more detailed assessment of the locations (the Sustainability Appraisal) by the summer; and

• Publish a final list of potential locations later this year.

In support of the other elements of the Bill, the Government will:

• Publish an Empowerment White Paper this summer;
• Publish Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 6 Town Centre Policy;
• Consult on reforming the system of building control;
• Publish a National Improvement and Efficiency Prospectus of good practice measures for local government; and
• Publish this year’s Citizenship Survey Annual Report.