"Britain’s 30 years of centralisation has left local government weaker, poorer and less influential than in any other western country. New Labour has made some tentative steps in the opposite direction, but is still criticised for its centralising tendencies. The time has come for it to pin its colours firmly to the mast of devolution.

Over the last year, I have been working with councils across the country and with government departments to show how empowering neighbourhoods can work in practice. I have been arguing that the time is ripe for “double devolution” – not only passing power downwards from Whitehall to local towns, cities and counties, but also from town halls to neighbourhood democracy. For the first time in a generation, thanks to the vision of the minister for communities David Miliband and the political possibilities opened up by leadership transitions in all three parties, it is now possible to imagine how the long drift to centralisation could be reversed."

http://society.guardian.co.uk/localgovt/comment/0,,1720158,00.html

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