After the Tories ousted Labour in 2010 they immediately launched their well publicised localism bill 2011 a paper intended to shake out Westminster and give Councils more powers over local and regional decision making.
After a very short while Westminster officials started to glower at its contents when all levels of government became subject to the let’s make Britain smaller George Osborne’s austerity program.
Tory Councils nationwide stood firm and egged on by its members began to slip in local changes to suit themselves and stand against communities which didn’t vocally support their view of how austerity should damage services in urban environs and protect interests in rural ones.
The local government press issued this article as things got hotter with communities seeking support against a number of nationally approved planning applications, ‘Many local authorities emboldened by the fanfare which surrounded the enactment of the Localism Act and the implementation of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) told their residents that this would be the end of “top down” planning and decisions on development would be made locally’.
It was on most applications unless they fell into the strategic description. But it opened they way for developers to challenge council decisions on a huge scale with costs having to be met by local taxpayers and if lost councils had no control at all on the sites in both the layout and the adoption stages.
This missive on behalf of Councils through their cock a hoop attitudes bulldozed the nation into a housing crisis that is still looking difficult to resolve.
So when Labour won its majority in 2024 they didn’t launch new policy on the same scale as the localism act, instead the took a warmhearted view of the act and decided to regionalise disputed applications using the offices of regional mayors and the act allows it.
This new very minor change has been attacked by the remnants of Badenoch's rag tag army and in Northumberland by Councillor Horncastle the member responsible for planning with the Mayor telling the full story in an interview with the BBC.
The scaremongering Councillor Horncastle needs to read the localism act 2011 and he’ll find what’s proposed sits within the act and that he needs to get his finger out to find land to build the Councils way out of a crisis that has seen Tory led Northumberland County Council write off thousands of families in need of safe and secure reasonably priced housing.
But of course that doesn’t make the rich richer, does it?
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/20/contents
https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/politics/concern-voiced-at-plans-to-give-regional-mayors-more-powers-on-planning-decisions-8938578
https://www.northeast-ca.gov.uk/get-involved/mayor-meets
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/northumberland-county-council/northumberland-county-council-00em-regulatory-judgement-11-february-2026
https://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/25688428.7-000-wiped-off-housing-waiting-list-northumberland/
