Baroness Scott of Needham Market guarantees wholehearted Lib Dem support for Sustainable Communities Bill in the House of Lords


Speaking for the Lib Dems at the second reading of the Sustainable Communities Bill, Baroness Scott pointed out that the Bill would empower local communities to decide what is best for them.

Outlining the Lib Dem stance on the Bill, Baroness Scott said:

“We support the Bill because it puts people first and gives them a bigger say in what happens. It does so in three ways. First, it helps to identify and tackle community decline, promoting greater social, economic and environmental sustainability in communities. Secondly, it actively encourages participation by communities in the decisions affecting them. Finally, it provides accountability in areas where there has previously not been enough democratic accountability.”

“I particularly welcome the fact that the Bill helps to provide a framework within which groups that do not always have the strongest voice can make their voices heard. Too often it is a minority of very loud people in a community who get their way, rather than the majority, who find it difficult to fight their way through the system. The Bill’s potential merit is its holistic approach to community involvement. [?] A Bill that actively promotes participation by the whole community by helping them to identify problems and to do something about them can be only welcomed.”

Baroness Scott went on to explain:

“The Bill’s important aspect, particularly as it relates to the local government Bill going through your Lordships’ House at the moment, is that it puts the duty on central government to help local areas, whereas the local government Bill is very much about how local councils have to adhere to the policies and practices put forward by central government. There is a tendency among central governments of all kinds to adhere to one-size-fits-all and not always to understand that, although there are times when a policy may well have the effect which they desire in one area, the law of unintended consequences will always kicks in and result in things going badly wrong somewhere else.”

Concluding her speech, Baroness Scott highlighted:

“The Bill is about empowering local communities and complementing and extending what the government were intending to do in their White Paper. It is about supporting communities. Communities are something that we all feel passionately about, whether in terms of the environment, social exclusion or the economy. There are hundreds and thousands of people who are passionate about their communities and who want their services restored and extended, but they have not had a chance to have their voices heard. That is what the Bill is about and that is why we shall support it from these Benches.”

Please click here to read Baroness Scott’s speech in the House of Lords in full

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