Report calls for radical expansion of town and parish councils

Onward has stressed that the government’s levelling up plans should not be limited to metro mayors and county deals but also include a radical expansion of neighbourhood control through town and parish councils.

The think tank’s Social Fabric Index shows that local authorities with full town and parish coverage score significantly higher than local authorities without any hyperlocal councils for key measures of community strength. Fully parished local authorities have, on average, over five times as many community assets as fully unparished areas, as well as 38 per cent higher rates of volunteering and group membership, and 34 per cent higher rates of charitable giving.

Rolling out town and parish councils across the whole of England and entrusting them with greater responsibilities could help deliver on two of the government’s keystone levelling up commitments: empowering local leaders and communities and restoring local pride.

Onward call for three reforms to achieve this: introducing an automatic ballot alongside local elections to ask people in every local area currently without a town or parish council whether they want to establish one; requiring that every town or parish council is two-thirds elected and ensuring that 25 per cent of revenue from the planned Infrastructure Levy goes to town and parish councils; and giving neighbourhood councils them the ability to ‘pull down’ responsibility for neighbourhood functions from the local authority if they believe they could do a better job than the district or unitary authority.

Jenevieve Treadwell, Researcher at Onward and report author, said: “If we want to turn around the fortunes of Britain’s most left behind communities, we need to give them the institutions and tools to level themselves up.

“At the moment, nearly two thirds of England has no town or parish council and therefore has one hand behind its back. This paper sets out how places can take back control – and how ministers can empower them to govern their own futures.”