We had a fascinating day in Stockport today discussing the Localism Bill with council and community workers from across the NW. We were pleased to have Andrew Stunell giving the key note address. He began by laying down a promise and a challenge: a promise that the coalition really mean it about localism and a challenge to local government to take up what he termed a “licence to fix things” and to push localism forward without guidance or a code of practice from central government.

There was a window, he contended, of three to four years in which to really embed localism, but this could only happen if local government and communities worked together to a make it a reality.