Vast majority of Brits feel powerless over local decisions – and it’s eroding trust in politics

A growing number of Brits feel powerless over local decisions, new polling has found, as Labour is urged to expand devolution to include community groups as well as councils.

In total, 84% of Brits polled by We’re Right Here said they felt powerless, up from 71% in 2018. Three quarters said giving power to local people would help restore trust in politics. 

Labour hailed a new era of devolution as it entered government, with local areas given authority on transport, infrastructure and more, and Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner quickly convening meetings with England’s regional mayors. But campaigners say the English Devolution Bill marks an opportunity to genuinely transform communities.

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Andy Jackson, chief executive of the Heeley Trust in Sheffield, said it had taken his group 10 years to negotiate the transfer for a derelict school in the area. “Instead of working side by side, it was an adversarial process where we had to prove over and over again that we could do it,” Jackson said. “It cost millions actually doing it that way, not working with us.”

The Heeley Trust, which operates in an old steel-working community in the city, began in the 1990s as residents picked up the pieces after a programme of slum clearance. It now works alongside around 700 people a year. Jackson said Labour’s bill should include provision for services to be designed with local people involved, and a community ‘Right to Buy’ for local assets.

“Our country is completely centralised. Power comes down from government,” Jackson said. “Our local authorities are treated like that, and they treat us like that.

“This is a chance, if we do this right, for government to push power way beyon local government, and into the arms of community orgnanisations in neighbourhoods. And that redefines everything, really.”

Starmer has announced £1.5bn of new funding, which he says will “breathe life back into your neighbourhood” by allowing communities to “build thriving high streets, parks, youth clubs, libraries and cultural venues”.

The We’re Right Here campaign said Starmer’s devolution bill represented a “significant opportunity to win tangible power”, but that it should establish a Community Right to Shape Public Services, and Community Covenants.

Under a Community Right to Shape Public Services, community organisations and service users would be able to trigger a review of a failing local service. The resulting review, carried out by consulting the community, could result in changes to the service, and campaigners say it could repair relations between communities and councils.

Community Covenants would bring in formal power-sharing arrangements between councils and local groups, which campaigners say would reduce red tape and complex funding arrangements, letting locals shape their areas.

Claude Hendrickson, of Leeds Community Homes, said big government aims like the construction of 1.5 million new homes needed to take into account the experiences of communities.

“When they think about building houses, don’t just think about it in units. Think about the opportunities to create employment and training. The government wants to build 1.5 million houses, what are the opportunities to train the next generation of construction workers,” Hendrickson, whose organisation runs a network of alternative housing groups in the city, said.

Regeneration, he warned, could easily become gentrification – like in the Chapeltown suburb of Leeds. “Historically it’s happened because if they come in and say they’re going to knock down a set of houses because they’ve deteriorated or become derelict, the people in that area very rarely get a chance to go and live back in that area when they’ve been rebuilt,” Hendrickson said. “It could take three to five years to turn around an area.”

Tony Armstrong, chief executive of Locality, said: “Including community organisations in local decision-making isn’t just key to restoring trust – it’s essential to restoring hope, particularly in our most disadvantaged communities. 80% of Locality members operate in the most disadvantaged half of the country. These organisations are rooted in their communities, led by local people who understand the challenges their areas face—and crucially, the solutions needed to tackle them.”

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