The Environment Council and Nick Hurd MP host seminar on the Sustainable Communities Bill
On the morning of the 22nd of May, The Environment Council and the RSA’s CarbonLimited were delighted to host a morning seminar on the Sustainable Communities Bill with its principle sponsor, Nick Hurd MP. Held at the RSA’s Durham Street Auditorium, the seminar was chaired by The Environment Council’s CEO Mike King, with Trustee of The Environment Council and Head of Cities and Communities at WWF, Rod Sterne, responding to Nick’s introduction to the Bill.
A diverse range of interested parties attended the event and questions regarding the reach and detail of the Bill covered a variety of interests and concerns. Both speakers and attendees found the discussion to be rich and useful, and enjoyed the opportunity to speak directly with the Minister. An audio recording of the event will be available on this website shortly (please see foot of page for download).
The Environment Council’s work with stakeholders shows that the issues being addressed by this Bill are of very real environmental, economic and social concern to society. Repeatedly our projects have demonstrated that engagement is an effective, robust way to achieve jointly owned, locally appropriate and implemented solutions and is especially helpful at a local level, where community cohesion is so vital.
The Environment Council welcomes the Sustainable Communities Bill approach of seeking to assist Local Authorities to deliver local solutions to the issues facing their communities and to encourage democratic participation in planning and decision-making.
With our extensive experience The Environment Council can add value to the four main areas of the Bill:
| > | Protecting or reviving local economic activity has consequent positive social and environmental impacts for communities, by reducing food miles, reducing carbon footprint from traveling and encouraging local innovation, employment and production. However, businesses need to be engaged in order to understand and contribute to these positive outcomes. The Environment Council can not only bring together key stakeholders from a very local, to a global level, but can also add value by sharing our skills and expertise to empower communities to achieve this engagement themselves. |
| > | Protecting the local environment is vital for communities to achieve a balance with economic and social considerations. It is important to ensure that people are engaged in the decisions made about their local resources in order to ensure their support. The Environment Council has a key role in identifying not only who should be engaged, but importantly, the way to achieve the most sustainable outcomes for all parties. |
| > | Promoting social inclusion is aligned with our aims and experience as a charity dedicated to engagement and involving all points of view in decision-making. Addressing this issue at a local level will help to engage with those groups least consulted for their input into decisions that often have the greatest impact on them. We believe that sustainable decisions are best reached by involving all parties and work at all levels of society to do so. |
| > | Increasing participation in civic and political activity can best be achieved through engagement in a holistic and balanced fashion, to avoid the risk of the ‘loudest voices’ gaining the greatest proportion of decision-making power. True sustainability of communities depends on the involvement of all sectors of that community and so we believe that increasing participation is a necessary and worthwhile pursuit, but must be implemented fairly and with consideration for the diversity of views that will contribute to achieving a sustainable community. |
In this context The Environment Council advocates:
| > | Effective stakeholder and community engagement is critical to the successful implementation of this Bill’s primary aims. |
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Guidance (Section 4, Subsection 7 of the Bill) issued by the Secretary of State should include (i) appropriate support and resources for principal councils on how best to engage (ii) Resource for councils to conduct engagement with communities in developing plans |
| > | A key part of this resource and support is building capacity in communities to own and drive their own engagement processes. |
| > | A cohesive and collaborative approach to the implementation of key pieces of legislation. For instance, we would like to see a clear demonstration of how the Sustainable Communities Bill can help to achieve the targets in the upcoming Climate Change Bill. |
Materials
| > | Initial invitation and agenda |
| > | Document on The Environment Council and The Sustainable Communities Bill including a brief of its main elements |
| > | Attendee list for the event |
| > | The Environment Council related activities |
| > | The Sustainable Communities Bill its self can be found here |
| > | COMING SOON - Audio recording of the event |
To read these .pdf documents you will require Adobe Reader.
For more information about this or upcoming events at The Environment Council, please contact Government Relations Manager Winsome Grigor by email or phone on 020 7632 0108.