The Localism Act finally became law on the 15th November. It is a major part of the Coalition Government's drive for decentralisation and has five key areas ( Government page on the five key measures)

Community Rights   *   Neighbourhood Planning   *   Housing   *   General Power of Competence   *   Empowering Cities and other local areas.

You can read the detail of the whole Act in all 497 pages here  or much easier go to the Updated Plain English Guide to the Bill here

Other useful links are;

• Government consultation on the powers to be given to Elected Mayors. This could affect Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield and Wakefield in this region. A good BBC summary of this can be read here.
• A briefing on the two 'community rights' from Locality
• A NAVCA Blog on the Localism Act - what has changed from the original Bill
• RTPI has a page with a focus on the new neighbourhood planning regime including a 10 minute podcast you canmlisten to by their Chief Policy Officer

If you know of any resources you have found particularly useful or interesting please let us know and we can provide the links.