participation inquiry found that creating unitary councils should strengthen and clarify local democracy and accountability, helping rural local government to punch its weight with city-regions and regional bodies. It recommended a structure of powerful new unitaries working closely with a renewed network of empowered parish and town councils.The BCs decision on the status of the current amber light unitaries of Devon, Suffolk and Norfolk is now due in October, following a further...

 21st July 2009

9 new English unitary authorities came into being on 1 April. Between them they'll serve over 3.2 million people, a significant proportion of whom live in rural areas.

 2nd April 2009

We're delighted to be working with NALC to hold a number of feedback sessions providing updates on the progress made in taking forward the findings and recommendations of our Participation Inquiry.

 15th January 2009

We're encouraging parish and town councils to play an increasingly dynamic and influential role in local government.

 27th June 2008

We've responded to the Communities and Local Government consultation on Participatory Budgeting - a draft national strategy.

 10th June 2008

We welcome Government moves giving local authorities a duty to respond to petitions. We also welcome new powers for councillors to call for local government matters to be refered for consideration by the overview and scrutiny committees of their local authorities.

 20th March 2008

We welcome the new powers to create new parish and town councils announced by Local Government Minister John Healy . We also welcome the continued commitment by Government to devolve more power and decision making to councils.

 22nd February 2008

Crispin Moor, our Whitehall Director, has written about our participation inquiry 'Strengthening the role of local councillors' for the latest issue of Whitehall and Westminster World.

 19th February 2008

Our new report 'Participation Inquiry: Strengthening the role of local councillors' highlights that nearly half of rural residents feel unable to influence local decisions directly affecting their lives.

 30th January 2008

There's still time to book your place for our one day conference launching the findings and recommendations of our 'strengthening the role of local councillors' inquiry.

 25th January 2008