The Government's White Paper on Community Empowerment

Communities in control: real people, real power sets out how the Government plans to give citizens and communities more rights and more power through:

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• more information and greater influence over the local decisions that affect them;
• new means of holding politicians and councils to account; and,
• where they choose, more opportunity to get directly involved in managing and shaping how local services are delivered.

The White Paper will seek to address issues around lack of power and influence at a local level. These include -

• New rights for the public to demand action from their council
• Increasing accountability
• Getting redress when things go wrong
• Giving local people a direct say on how budgets are spent
• £70m Communitybuilders fund
• Local people running local assets
• Making it easier for people to get a directly elected mayor
• Promoting democracy
• Empowering young people

Consultation

The White Paper was published on Wednesday 9th July 2008 and we await further details from the Communities and Local Government Department about any consultations on this document.