The Government has published a landmark bill granting more powers to local communities and enabling local people the freedom to run their own neighbourhoods in the way that they decide is best. The legislation aims to revise the relationship between central and local government and between communities and individuals.

Eric Pickles the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government said, “By getting out of the way and letting councils and communities run their own affairs we can restore civic pride, democratic accountability and economic growth – and build a stronger, fairer Britain. It’s the end of the era of big government: laying the foundations for the Big Society.”

The Localism Bill contains the following measures to strengthen local communities:

• Devolving significant new powers to councils;
• Establishing powerful new rights for local people and communities;
• Radically reforming planning;
• Making housing fairer and more democratic;
• Creating powerful incentives for economic growth.

Three networking events being held by Ecorys for Reaching Communities projects are proving really popular. Events in London on 28th July and in Manchester on 29th July are already full and with waiting lists. However we do still have a few last minute spaces at our event in Birmingham on 19th July. Each event has been designed to meet the needs of projects with a chance to meet other projects, share experiences and learn more about the findings of Ecorys’ four year evaluation of the programme.

ECOTEC* are pleased to launch this new blog for all Reaching Communities projects. The blog will contain all of the info from our old website, plus lots of exciting new items. You can find out here about our forthcoming events, our video case studies and our evaluation findings from the overall programme evaluation.  If you have news to share you can contact us through the blog or comment on other postings. So…get in touch!

*ECOTEC changed their name on 4th October 2010 to Ecorys.