Action Briefing Feb 2003 - Mar 2004
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Local Sustainability Bill launched

You heard it here first - revolution is coming! The Local Sustainability Bill was formally launched at a posh-canape’d launch party in an oak-panelled room at the House of Commons in January.

The Local Sustainability Bill (or Early Day Motion 169 as it is currently) could give a very significant boost to true sustainability in the UK. Its aim is to tackle the causes of community decline in our neighbourhoods, such as local facilities closing down, fewer or struggling local independent businesses, fewer local jobs, more and more travel to work causing more traffic and pollution, families spending less time together because of the distances involved, and so on - and all the exclusion and decline that this brings.

The Bill will enable local authorities to inform the policies of national government to make them sustainable. This means local economies, local services, environmental protection, social inclusion and increasing involvement in the democratic process. It means a reversal of what the New Economics Foundation calls “Ghost Town Britain” syndrome, which affects inner city areas as much as it does the more traditional market towns who tend to be more able to fight back.

Some idea of the Bill's broad appeal can be gleened from the diverse list of organisations backing it, Unison, FARM, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA)*, the National Pharmacy Association, the New Economics Foundation, and Friends of the Earth. Localise West Midlands is the contact organisation for the campaign in this region.

How it works
The Local Sustainability Bill would require the government to draw up and then implement, in conjunction with local councils and communities, a national strategy to promote, and to empower councils and communities to promote, local sustainability based upon four related concepts: promoting local economies and services; environmental protection; reducing social exclusion and increasing involvement in democratic processes. This strategy will use a range of indicators which are listed below.

Frequently, central government imposes obligations on local authorities to create strategies for sustainability, such as community strategies, Local Agenda 21 (LA21) etc., but by altering its own strategies in response, it effectively stifles local action. The Local Sustainability Bill reverses that process and creates a virtuous circle in support of sustainability. The workload implications for local authorities are also reduced, as the authorities’ sustainability strategies can easily be based on an existing sustainability strategy and the burden of work and financing of it falls to central government.

Admittedly, it’s not a particularly easy Bill to promote on the streets. Bills such as the Warm Homes Bill were quite easy to ‘sell’, as signing up amounted to stating that you didn’t feel it was right to let people freeze to death in winter. The Local Sustainability Bill sounds much more like a whole load of strategies and layers of governance.

But if anyone wants to protect and reinstate our local shops and pubs, rebuild communities, reverse the marginalisation of the poor, support small and independent businesses, see local-scale energy and resource (a.k.a. 'waste') treatment, have healthier food chains and reduce traffic, then they should support this Bill.

We will be organising a public meeting in Birmingham in conjunction with Birmingham Community Empowerment Network, to raise public awareness of the Bill, date and venue to be confirmed - but if you are potentially interested in attending, do let me know. And remember - it’s not a Bill, it’s an embryonic Act!

The indicators in the Local Sustainability Bill are:

a) provision of local services, shops and other facilities;
b) sale and procurement of local goods;
c) increase in growth and marketing of organic forms of food production and the local food economy;
d) number of local jobs;
e) quantity of energy supplied locally from sustainable sources;
f) measures to promote public transport and reduce excess traffic and product miles;
g) increase in social inclusion and democratic involvement;
h) measures to increase mutual aid and other community projects;
i) measures to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

For more information visit www.neweconomics.org/gen/local_works_steering.aspx

Karen Leach
Localise West Midlands
www.localisewestmidlands.org.uk

Take Action
Write to, ring or go to see your MPs. They may have signed up to the Bill last year, but they will need to reiterate their support by signing the new Early Day Motion, EDM 169.

Contact your councillors, letting them know about the Bill and suggesting they look into supporting it. Sign up to support the campaign. If you don’t have web access, you can do this by ringing NEF on 0207 359 8000. Organisations can sign up too.

Let me know if you’d like to attend the public meeting. Call Karen Leach on 0121 632 6909 or email me.