Locality has published a major report on the response of community organisations to the COVID-19 crisis.
Locality argues that the power of community can help British society recover from COVID-19. The government is asked to empower community organisations to help communities recover from the crisis. It is suggested that the state is over-centralised and that further localism is needed.
Key findings from the report are:
- More competition and investment is needed in public services.
- Community power can help create collaborative public services.
- A new Community Partnership Power is needed to allow local (parish and town) councils and others to manage budgets supporting plans for community delivery.
This confirms the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) own analysis of local council activity and support moves to further empower communities. NALC is interested in exploring how a Community Partnership Power would work in practice.