“There is much to be welcomed in this White Paper including strengthening the rights of communities to purchase cherished local assets such as youth clubs, libraries or sport facilities; increasing powers over control of local transport, better alignment of public services including police, health and probation and removing the need for government to sign off decisions for locally specific things like cycle lanes.    

“The big gap is the democratic deficit in Labour’s plans. This risks being devolution that steals power away from local people. We have to ask, how will local communities get heard? And who will hold mayors to account?  

“We need to keep the local in local government. That means decision making as close as possible to the people most impacted; it involves trusting local communities to know what is best for them and supporting them with investment to deliver real change. And true democracy must include a fair proportional voting system for local elections, which seems to be a glaring omission from this White Paper.” 

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“Labour’s housing strategy involves cosying up to big wealthy developers and falling for the myth that the private sector will build the housing that we need. But too many developers are more interested in lining their own pockets than in providing what communities are actually crying out for, which is affordable housing.      

“We can’t privatise our way out of the housing crisis. If we are to build the right homes in the right place and at the right price, we need to build hundreds of thousands of new council and social homes. These need to be in places well served by schools, health services and public transport. Not detached housing estates with a predominance of large expensive homes that make a quick and big buck for developers but are out of reach for most people.” 

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