Local Works

Death by delay! Please help save the Sustainable Communities Act

Earlier this year we asked our supporters for help to stop the government’s plans to weaken the Sustainable Communities Act. Their efforts have led to encouraging progress - civil servants have given us assurances that the Act will not be weakened.

But we still face a serious problem – delay. It would seem that certain people in government want to delay things long enough to make us go away and lose interest.

We keep being told that more time is needed to consider...more discussion...more meetings...more deliberation – whatever it takes to tangle the whole thing up long enough to kill the Act. We’ve already been waiting for over 9 months – far too long!

It’s becoming “death by a thousand delays”.

There is a real danger these delaying tactics will work. The longer the delays go on, the more frustrated everyone becomes and the harder it will be to involve people in the Act in future.  And sadly our communities continue to suffer whilst these delays go on.

We want to make sure you can still use the Act to protect your local shops, post offices and pubs and promote things like renewable energy.

Building support amongst MPs will be vital if we are to succeed. So please contact your MP, asking them to help end the delay by writing to Communities Minister, Greg Clark.

Please also ask others in your area to do the same - the more people that write or e-mail their MPs the better!

Thank you very much for your efforts!