Terrie Alafat Director, Housing Growth, Markets and Strategy The Government’s view Mutual Housing Event Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors 19 November 2010

The Big Society vision Principles Values Freedom Frameworks that support social responsibility and civil liberties Fairness Those who cannot, we always help Responsibility Those who can, do Social action What people can do for each other Community empowerment How people can help themselves Public service reform What the state can do for people A Big Society matched by Big Citizens “The Big Society is about a huge culture change where people, in their everyday lives….feel both free and powerful enough to help themselves and their own communities” David Cameron, 19 July Methods DecentralisationTransparencyProviding finance

Definitions Localism Decentralisation Big Society Is the ethos… Doing everything at the lowest possible level and only involving central government if absolutely necessary Is what we do… Giving away power to individuals, professionals, communities and local institutions Is what we’re trying to achieve… A society where people, neighbourhoods and communities have more power and responsibility and use it to create better services and outcomes.

The Big Story “Localism isn't simply about giving power back to local government. We will push power downwards and outwards to the lowest possible level - so that power is held by local people. People want more for less in their services and we will free up councils to make that happen.” Eric Pickles

Shift toward local accountability “ We need to give people the platform to get things done ….. a system which properly puts tenants and their representatives firmly in the driving seat…..that’s what I call real tenant empowerment” Grant Shapps, CIH Conference, July 2010

Housing commitments Publish a paper setting out the Government’s plans for social housing Introduce an affordable rent scheme. Introduce the Community Right to Build, allowing communities to take forward their own plans for development Increase mobility amongst social housing tenants to make social housing more flexible Provide a strong incentive for local authorities to build new homes in the form of a New Homes Bonus..

Other commitments of interest… Giving every neighbourhood the chance to shape its own development through the creation of neighbourhood plans Giving communities the right to save local facilities threatened with closure Giving communities the right to bid to take over local state-run services And on Wednesday Francis Maude launched the new rights and support for staff mutuals for public sector workers

Neighbourhood Plans Every neighbourhood will be given the chance to shape its own development through the creation of neighbourhood plans These will give local communities greater flexibility and the freedom to bring forward more development than set out in the local authority plan. Neighbourhood plans will need to respect the overall national presumption in favour of sustainable development, as well as other local strategic priorities such as the positioning of transport links and meeting housing need

Community Right to Build Proposals to be set out in Localism Bill to be introduced shortly Empowering communities to bring forward development they want Supporting community-led development proposals Maintaining benefit of development locally Light-touch, streamlined process Community referendum to ensure local support for proposals Support arrangements to advise and help community groups get proposals off the ground

Regulatory changes Regulation will also reflect the principles of localism and decentralisation: Regulator remains focused on proactive economic regulation – maintaining lender confidence and protecting the tax payer. This is its primary role And regulator will continue to set clear standards on economic and consumer matters and respond to serious failures against them But a new localist approach to consumer regulation – with greater landlord accountability to tenants Emphasis on landlords agreeing with tenants the information tenants need to judge performance and hold landlords to account Landlords will be encouraged to facilitate development of tenant panels And local mechanisms will be used to address routine problems, with an enhanced role for elected Councillors, MPs and tenant panels in the complaints process.

What can tenants do? Social Housing Tenants who play an active role in their estates already exemplify the benefits of localism - making a real difference to their communities The new shape of regulation gives more opportunities to drive involvement at local level. Tenants can : Get involved in scrutinising the activities of landlords, and working with them to drive up service standards. Come together to form a tenant panel in collaboration with their landlords We in DCLG are working closely with the National Tenant Organisations to develop and drive this work.

What can you do? Get involved in discussions on the Localism Bill Continue to work with Local Authorities to identify land Make connections with the developing Housing Associations Continue your good work on tenant participation – one of the keys to the Big Society