Prescott concedes: We need a new form of governance

The government is planning to unveil a radical overhaul of the way neighbourhoods are managed at the Delivering Sustainable Communities Summit in Manchester at the end of the month.

In an exclusive interview with Housing Today, deputy prime minister John Prescott said he wanted to set up a new framework to satisfy people who are “demanding more and more say” in the way in which their neighbourhoods are run.

He said: “There is no doubt about it – we need a new form of governance … I’m now looking at what exists beneath the council in the form of communities and that can be in various forms: parishes, neighbourhood communities.

“There are a whole range of [schemes] where people operate and it’s not the same in every area. But I do want to find a framework so that more people can make decisions within the local government framework.”

Prescott cited housing associations as examples of the sort of vehicle that could take on a greater role, calling them and schemes such as Sure Start and New Deal for Communities “nurseries for democracy”.

However, he stressed that any changes outlined in the second of two ODPM five-year plans, to be called People, Places and Prosperity, would not mean a diminished role for local authorities in terms of neighbourhood management.

Mike Forrester, Leicester council’s corporate director of housing, said: “The council encourages communities to … improve their area, but great care has to be taken to get it right. New Deal for Communities has shown that there needs to be more guidance from the government about how to spend money and how to deliver realistic change.”

The deputy prime minister also refused to quash mounting speculation that his five-year housing plan – called Homes For All and due to be published on Monday – will allow all housing association tenants to buy their homes (HT, 14 January, page 7).

He said the present system of right to buy and helping key workers to buy homes was “not a very effective way of using public money”, and added: “Perhaps you can actually do more than that. In my range of options, from buying, renting, part-buying – all those things I will be presenting to parliament at the appropriate time – you will see the proper judgement that I have made in the balance of these various options.”

Prescott was speaking ahead of the Delivering Sustainable Communities Summit in Manchester, which runs from 31 January to 2 February. The summit will mark the second anniversary of the publication of the communities plan in February 2003.

Prescott said the Manchester summit was a “sell out”, having sold more than 2000 tickets. He also said that he was satisfied with the progress made on getting new legislation in place to deliver the communities plan, but added: “You always want more to be done.”