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Communities in Control

This White Paper is about transferring power to citizens and communities. It does not profess to be about transferring power to local authorities. In 2006-07, the White Paper and the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 amounted to a dramatic shift, with local area agreements freeing up councils through grants that are not ring-fenced. The council thus became the central, democratically elected organisation co-ordinating the whole range of public services, which represented a significant degree of devolution from the centre to the locality. The focus of the White Paper is to ensure that part of the deal is completed, meaning that if there is to be more devolution to local authorities, which there should be, they have a responsibility to devolve power more and more to local people and communities, so that they, too, absolutely feel part of our revived and more vibrant democracy.