This Government is determined to build a new relationship of respect, trust and shared responsibility between the state and its citizens. On 21 May, I announced this government’s ambitious new programme to reform local services, building more integrated, place-based and user-centred models of delivery and restoring people’s pride in their areas and communities. I can now set out further details of this agenda and new reforms to put communities first.
Building on the measures announced in May, I can today confirm:
Our new programme of Community Power Pilots, designed to support councils to work with community groups and residents to deliver community-led and locally responsive services in areas such as youth provision, community safety, housing and green spaces. The pilots will cover 25 places in England to accelerate change and will be backed by £15m of new funding.We are determined to drive out profiteering from public services. In May, I made clear the government would not flinch from using new powers to cap the profits of private providers in children’s social care if our assessment and consultation showed this to be necessary. But we recognise profiteering is not limited to children’s social care. Therefore, we are also working with the Home Office and with London councils signed up to the London Accommodation Management Agreement to bring consistency and value for money to the procurement of temporary accommodation and to prevent profiteering.In addition to the new powers for Mayors, I announced under the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act’s new Right to Request process that we will establish a Task and Finish Group to jointly define the role of Mayors and strategic authorities in public service reform more widely. This will include specific consideration of how strategic authorities could play a role in driving better procurement, commissioning and delivery of local public services. We believe local authorities should retain autonomy in their procurement of the services they are accountable for and should remain responsive to local need and community concerns. However, we want to build a system where they can benefit from increased market power and knowledge that pooling resources at regional level can provide, to crack down on profiteering.We have concluded our review of the Right to Manage and will be taking forward a series of reforms to the regulatory and policy framework to make it as easy as possible for more social housing residents to come together to take control of their own homes and estates and to make housing managers directly accountable to the people who live there. Currently, the majority of social housing residents live in homes run by housing associations and are excluded from the Right to Manage. We will explore whether there is a case for extending the statutory right to these tenants and will consult with residents and social housing providers on the detail ahead of any change. We will make sure there is better support and oversight built into the Right to Manage system, including stronger enforcement action in the event of serious mismanagement where residents' safety is put at risk. We want social landlords to do more to support tenants to take up Right to Manage, in line with existing regulatory requirements.In addition, I can also announce the following new measures:
We will introduce a new Pride in Place Community Right to Buy Fund, backed by £61 million, to empower communities – focussing on the most deprived areas - to take ownership of valued local assets such as pubs, clubs and community centres, reversing the decline in shared public spaces and supporting social connection. This funding is part of the £301m earmarked to support our high streets and community spaces. It will directly support communities in taking advantage of Community Right to Buy, created by our English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act, and will support efforts to revitalise local high streets, building on the new powers for councils I announced last month.Alongside this, I can announce a £10m Test, Learn and Grow Capability Fund, led and funded by the Cabinet Office. The Test, Learn and Grow programme is central to how this government is delivering services differently – putting people at the centre, starting small and building on what works, and empowering frontline staff and local places to respond to what users need. The new fund will support up to 20 places to try out new ways of delivering public services. It will first be targeted at those areas already involved in the programme, with a specific focus on extending learning beyond individual local authorities and across sub-regions, through Mayoral Strategic Authorities and clusters of local authorities working together. It will then expand to new locations later in the autumn. We will announce further detail in due course.To address the barriers which hold back local authorities’ and other partners’ ability to integrate services, target prevention, and provide a more seamless user experience, we will be taking action on local government data sharing. The Government’s Strategic Data Roadmap will support local public service reform through a range of data products and services designed to facilitate greater collaboration on data sharing and interoperability. We will also develop standardised data sharing agreements for central government and wider public sector, including local governments to use, reducing administrative burdens and speeding up processes. This will complement work already in train at the Department for Education which is focussed on improving multi-agency information sharing for the purposes of safeguarding and welfare of children, including a introduction of a Single Unique Identifier for children.Finally, in recognition of the importance of place to outcomes for citizens and to the delivery of public services, I can announce that this government has established a new Place Unit, based in my department. This unit will act as convenors across departments, local stakeholders and community and place experts. They will provide an advisory function to other departments, ensuring that place and community are considered in policy development and helping bring local voices into central government decision making.https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wms/?id=2026-06-16.hcws117.0
seen at 10:17, 17 June in Written Ministerial Statements.