Labour’s take back control bill must see powers devolved beyond the town hall

The ‘take back control’ bill is the product of Labour strategists seeking to add political heft to the constitutional reforms proposed by Gordon Brown last month. Few can argue that the slogan is one of the most successful within recent political memory. Labour’s co-option of the phrase – as it is also doing with ‘levelling up’ – is a bold political gambit. The party is making a direct pitch to the voters that abandoned it in 2019. And it is seeking to tie the Leave vote to a call for greater devolution.

There is a clear rationale for this approach. Savanta ComRes polling for Power to Change last month found that 75% of British voters feel they have little control over the important decisions that affect their neighbourhood and local community. Arguably, this feeling of a lack of control, which has shown no sign of improvement in recent years, has been one of the primary drivers of many of our recent political shocks and surprises.

Labour’s response to this sentiment has been championed by Lisa Nandy and her team in recent months and years. It now appears to be forming a more central part of Labour’s offer to the electorate. As ever, questions remain over the extent to which the rhetoric will match reality. Opposition parties are great at promising to give power away, only to hoard it when they win elections. Indeed, only a few days after Starmer’s speech, Rachel Reeves was ruling out fiscal devolution being a part of the take back control bill package.

There is also a risk that some of the more radical potential of the bill is lost, as the debate focuses on the suite of powers that should or shouldn’t be transferred to our mayoral and local government town halls. Indeed, such debate is familiar territory for the Labour Party.

We believe there is another important layer to this discussion. Power to Change is part of the ‘We’re Right Here’ campaign, which is calling for a Community Power Act. Indeed, we can see much of the rhetoric of the campaign reflected in the take back control bill. Where the campaign differs is its laser-like focus on devolution beyond the town hall to the neighbourhood level.

Communities and community organisations have shown time and time again – from Covid to the cost of living – that it’s local people who find a way through crisis. With distrust in politicians at an all-time high, to really tackle feelings of disempowerment and a lack of control, we need a more dynamic form of democracy that recognises and works with this power that exists in every community. Indeed, the Savanta ComRes polling for Power to Change showed a huge public preference for powers to the hyper-local level over powers to mayors in order to restore trust in our politics.

The Community Power Act provides a blueprint for this “double devolution” that was cited in the Gordon Brown review. It would provide communities with new ‘rights’, giving local people greater opportunities to shape and manage spaces, services and spending in their area. It would establish community covenants, neighbourhood-level arrangements bringing local people, community organisations and local authorities together to share power and make decisions. A new Office of the Community Power Commissioner would ensure action is taken across government to uphold the new community rights and enable the formation of community covenants everywhere.

Importantly, this isn’t an either-or question. The Community Power Act is built on the premise of subsidiarity, a wonkish term which essentially means ‘look local first’. Our campaign recognises that many things will be best delivered by a combined or local authority – particularly for strategic policy areas such as transport, for example. But it also recognises that the community can play a much greater role, in partnership with the public sector, when it comes to certain public services, the stewardship and ownership of places and spaces and elements of government investment, particularly in relation to regeneration.

The forthcoming debate within the Labour Party on the content of the bill must be about devolution to the town hall and beyond. There is political weather to be made here. Polling for the We’re Right Here campaign shows that 71% of 2019 Conservative voters believe that to deliver on the spirit of the Brexit vote, they need more say over what happens in their neighbourhoods.

We will continue to hold Labour’s feet to the fire on this in the run-up to the next general election. The take back control bill must be people powered. If not, it would represent a huge, missed opportunity.