Local Governance Review: joint statement – September 2024

Last summer at Linlithgow Community Development Trust, we invited communities from across Scotland to get involved in the national Democracy Matters conversation to consider how greater democratic control over more decisions could enable their town, village or neighbourhood to flourish. We wanted people to bring all their ideas and creativity to the table to help design decision-making processes which involve the whole community and transform civic engagement in Scotland.

Today we publish the range of rich and diverse findings from that process which offer a glimpse of an enhanced democratic future where everyone in Scotland feels an equal sense of opportunity in where they live and can stand alongside their neighbours to make changes for the better. This important work is part of the wider Local Governance Review which is being taking forward jointly by the Scottish Government and COSLA to consider how powers and resources can be better shared between national and Local Government, and with our communities.

To help us deliver on these hopes and ideas, we are pleased to be forming a cross-sector Democracy Matters steering group made up of Local Government representatives, community leaders and democratic innovators. This group will be pivotal in helping us develop ambitious decision-making systems and processes and also consider how they can be tested on the ground with local people. We will also continue to work with children and young people’s organisations to explore how local decision-making can be made more accessible for them.

The Local Governance Review is also recalibrating how we share powers, responsibilities and resources at Local Authority and Community Planning Partnership level to maximise, and make best use of, the collective resource in each area. Our work together with partners in participating Local Authority areas will produce a detailed place-specific prospectus for a Single Authority Model in each area. The new local governance arrangements which we agree upon will strengthen and streamline local democratic decision-making and deepen the integration of our vital public services to improve people’s lives. Our approach will generate valuable learning which can also be applied in other geographies to consider what models will best help them transform their potential to deliver on local priorities.

To ensure proposals from the Local Governance Review work for communities, it is important to deliver a robust policy development and testing phase. To enable this, we will now work towards an implementation phase early in the next Parliament, including the consideration of the need for any essential legislation.

All of the work across the review will have human rights at its heart and be guided by our shared priorities set out in the Verity House Agreement; to tackle poverty, particularly child poverty; transform our economy through a just transition to deliver net zero; and to deliver sustainable person-centred public services. If you would like to follow our progress, follow us on X @CommEmpower or sign up to our newsletter.

Minister for Public Finance, Ivan McKee said:

I want to thank communities from across the country for joining the vibrant Democracy Matters conversation and offering such a broad range of ideas and hopes for the future of local democracy where they live.

This findings report offers a vital insight into how we can bring decision-making and public service design closer to people in a way that allows everyone to participate in community civic life.

We continue to be ambitious in our outlook and I look forward to working with COSLA and the community sector to deliver on the aspirations outlined in the findings report as well as on other elements of the Local Governance Review such as Single Authority Models.

COSLA President, Shona Morrison said:

Devolving powers to communities and individuals that are most affected by the decisions made with those powers is an ambition central to COSLA’s work.

The Democracy Matters phase two report is full of views and opinions from across the communities and people in Scotland and these will give us a sound foundation on which to build the new models of democracy and give a voice to all those wanting to be heard.

With our partners, the Scottish Government, we aim to continue pushing this work forward to ensure our communities are empowered to enhance democracy in ways that work best for them.

Chief Executive of Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS), Pauline Smith said:

The process of transitioning to a truly local and participative democratic culture is a challenging one. This consultation report provides a wealth of ideas to start bridging the gap between aspiration and practical implementation and clearly captures the significant challenges still to be overcome.

DTAS notes the renewed commitment to Democracy Matters in the recent Programme for Government and, with our members, will continue working with the Scottish Government, COSLA, and partners to take the next steps towards participative local democracy.