Greens want Government to reveal local spending plans

5th May 2009

The Green Party is calling on the government to produce Local Spending
Reports so that people can have a say in how their money is spent under
the Sustainable Communities Act. Sheffield City Council was the first
local authority in the country to opt into the Act. But the Government
has proposed that Local Spending Reports will only cover local authority
bodies and primary health trusts and only include information which is
mostly in the public domain already.

Coun Jillian Creasy said:
"Thanks to a Green Motion, which got unanimous support from the other
political parties, Sheffield is leading the way on the Sustainable
Communities Act. We need central government to play its part by
providing information about all the money it spends in the region. This
allows local communities to see how their money is being spent and make
suggestions about reallocating it. We will hold MPs to their promise to
give us this information."

ENDS

Motion re Local Spending Reports and the Sustainable Communities Act
proposed by Cllr Jillian Creasy

This council
1. Notes that Sheffield City Council was the first local authority in the country to opt into the provisions of the Sustainable Communities
Act 2007;

2. Welcomes the work that has been done so far by members and officers of this council including setting up a panel and organising a conference;

3. Believes this shows that the Council is taking its role in the
process seriously and is committed to giving local people the chance to
ask for changes which would make their communities more sustainable;

4. Understands that a critical part of the process is for Government to produce Local Spending Reports so that people can see how their money is spent in their local area and feed in ideas about how it could be better spent to revive local communities;

5. Is therefore disappointed to hear that government officials have
reneged on the Minister’s promises and proposed that Local Spending
Reports will only cover local authority bodies and primary health trusts
and only include information which is mostly in the public domain already;

6. Supports the demand made in Early Day Motion 1064 which calls for proper Local Spending Reports as promised by the Minister for Local
Government;

7. Will send a copy of this motion to all Sheffield MPs asking them to support the Early Day Motion and to the Minister for Local Government.