It was a long haul, and the election looked like scuppering it until Gordon Brown took fright, but finally, the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill has made it to the statute books.

It seems an age ago that its origin in the White Paper was published this time last year. At the time, it was seen as an astute direction of travel for Ruth Kelly, steering a path between the on-the-way-out PM Blair and the brooding PM-in-waiting Brown, for whom she had once worked, and who retained respect for her intellect, even as the media was savaging her over education.

There was always, therefore, a temporary feel about the White Paper, as if it would inevitably be swept away in the political upheavals of the first half of this year. The fact that it has survived, outlasted the Lyons review, and is now legislation under the interesting double act of populist Hazel Blears and ex-Treasury thinker John Healey, is testament to the breadth of its content. This, however, may not be wholly to their tastes, since ministers love to make their own marks, like builders forever disparaging the work of their predecessors.

Over the next few months, The MJ will be devoting its pages to the Act, from new unitaries to council governance, to powers to create bylaws and parishes in London. But, it is interesting to see the focus that minister John Healey has given to the Act in the Viewpoint column in The MJ this week, on page 11. Focusing on the community call for action, he argues that the new Act will give a boost to scrutiny as ‘one of a range of new measures I want to develop to put greater powers of challenge and change into the hands of people in our communities.' He steps back from using the words ‘double devolution', though ‘turning devolution to the doorstep' has a not-dissimilar ring.

But the big challenge from the Act will be to ensure this focus on ‘people in our communities' also resonates with the need for councils to maintain their community leadership role, particularly with partners, and particularly under the new CAA.

Michael Burton,
Editor, The MJ