The last step for the Bill is to gain Royal Assent before it can become an Act of Parliament.
The House of Commons has voted to accept all the amendments made to the Bill during its passage through the House of Lords and experts have indicated that the Bill could receive Royal Assent and become the Localism Act in as little as a week's time.
The Government's rationale behind the Localism Bill is to shift power increasingly held by Central Government back into the hands of individuals, communities and councils. It was first introduced to Parliament on 13 December 2010 and has now nearly finished its passage through Parliament.
If given Royal Assent, the Bill would introduce a number of overarching new measures that would affect the way councils are run, change the housing system and overhaul the planning and regeneration system.
The Bill introduces a "general power of competence" for local authorities, which aims to give councils more freedom to meet the needs of local people.
At present local authorities' power and responsibility is defined by legislation and a lack of understanding of these laws can hamper the fruition of new ideas through fear of challenge. The "general power of confidence" turns the current system on its head and proposes to allow local authorities to be free to do anything, provided they do not break laws.
If introduced, the Localism Bill would abolish the "Standards Board", which is currently required by law to oversee the behavior of councilors and deal with complaints. It is hoped that the abolition of the Standards Board would reduce lengthy debates and ill founded complaints. The Localism Bill would instead make it an offence for councilors to deliberately withhold or misrepresent a personal interest.
The planning and regeneration system would see considerable changes under the Localism Bill, which aims to make the system clearer, more democratic and more effective.
Regional Strategies are proposed to be abolished under the Bill and consultations on the effects of their abolition were launched by the Government on 21 October 2011. The strategies, set by Central Government, specify where new development needs to take place in each part of the country and set housing targets. The abolition of regional strategies would pass the power and decisions back to local authorities and communities.
The Bill would introduce a new right for communities to draw up a "neighbourhood development plan" which would allow locals to specify where they think development should take place and how the local area and towns should be planned. The Bill would allow local communities to grant outline planning permission in certain areas to make it easier and faster for development to go ahead.
The Bill retains the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), albeit slightly modified. The examiner’s recommendations on a local authority’s Charging Schedule (the document that sets out how much the authority proposes to charge and on what), is no longer fully binding (unless the examiner rejects the Charging Schedule). The use of CIL is clarified to include maintenance, operational and promotional activities, and a new power is introduced for Government to require CIL to be passed onto others to spend.
The planning system for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) would be overhauled including the abolition of the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), which currently considers NSIP applications. Instead the decisions on NSIPs would be taken by Government Ministers who are democratically elected and accountable to the public, unlike the IPC.
There are a number of housing reforms contained in the Bill which aim to make the system less rigid and allow decisions to be taken locally, the Government said.
The Bill would allow social landlords to grant tenancies for a fixed period of time. Social housing has been a contentious discussion point of late and under current legislation, social landlords are only able to grant lifetime tenancies. This can, and does, mean that people live, or have rights to, a social house long after their need for it has passed.
The Bill gives local authorities more control over the allocation system for social housing, which is aimed at reducing the number of unrealistic applications that waste time and result in lengthy waiting lists, the government said.
Council housing finance would be reformed under the Bill, which proposes to pass more power to a local level. Under the present system, social rent is passed to central government, who then redistribute it each year. The Bill proposes to allow councils to keep the rent and use it locally to maintain their social homes.
The only step left before the Localism Bill is enacted and becomes an Act of Parliament is for it to gain Royal Assent, which is essentially a formality.
"For the best of a century, most bills that have passed through this House have taken power from communities and councils and given more power to central Government or in some cases to European government. This is an historic bill, not just for the measures it contains but for what it represents," Greg Clark decentralisation minister said.
"It is about striking out in a different direction. Power should be held at the lowest possible level. We want this to be the first Parliament for many years that, by the end of its sessions, will have given power away."
