Norwich’s Conservative Parliamentary Candidates today welcomed David Cameron’s major policy paper outlining Conservative plans to give power back to communities.The proposals include stripping EEDA and the other Regional Development Agencies of their powers over planning; and giving local authorities in the region the power to establish their own local enterprise partnerships to take over development functions from RDAs.
In addition, the Conservatives will end all forced amalgamations of local authorities. The next Conservative government will stop the unitary restructuring plans for Norfolk and Suffolk, where recent delays mean the process will not have reached a conclusion prior to the next general election.
And furthermore, a Conservative government will introduce a new system that uses local referendums to control the level of local taxation.
Antony Little, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Norwich South, said:
“In the current economic downturn the last thing that millions of families need is yet another increase in their council tax bill. That is why I welcome these proposals on top of our existing policy which, for the first two years of a Conservative government, allows councils to contract with Whitehall to freeze council tax.”
Chloe Smith, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Norwich North, said:
“The next election won’t just be about whether to transfer power from Labour to the Conservatives. It will also be about whether to transfer power from Whitehall to us here locally. We can have an end to house building targets if we want it; we can have a way to hold the likes of Norwich City Council to account when it abuses our tax money by giving sheltered housing to its own employees; we can stop the unwanted, expensive unitary government proposals.”
