Increase community power to tackle populist discontent, Localis paper argues
Government must restore the public’s diminishing faith in democracy by embracing community power and placing strategic authorities under the legal obligation to co-produce decisions with residents, the think-tank Localis has argued.
In a paper published today entitled “Centralisation, Local Decline and the Future of Community Power”, Localis argues that to counter than populist anger and discontent channelled by the Reform Party’s breakthrough in May’s local elections, central government must go beyond the slogans of localism and levelling up that have dominated recent political history and genuinely empower local communities.
According to the Localis study, democratic renewal in England must begin not with more top-down managerialism from Whitehall or delegating such to unaccountable networks of regional governance but with meaningful statutory provisions for double devolution – power transfers that enshrine pathways for communities and residents to influence both local and national decision-making.
Key findings from the paper include:
- connection between the proliferation of undelivered promises of community control and the growing disenfranchisement with politics as usual felt across the population – evidenced by the record lack of support for the two traditional main parties in the May 2025 local elections.
- short-term cycles, a lack of capacity funding and an overriding theme of central government micromanagement remain key barriers to genuine ‘double devolution’.
- despite some promise in new government initiatives, much remains to be done in embedding mechanisms for meaningful community participation in the policy process, particularly in a policy environment which favours a regional approach.
Callin McLinden, senior researcher Localis, said: “England continues to face a structural crisis, not just of governance, but of democratic credibility itself. For too long, successive governments have hidden central control behind a rhetoric of localism, leaving communities disempowered and disconnected.
From the Big Society to Levelling Up, the promises have been grand, but the delivery has been managerial, procedural, and often hollow.
If we’re serious about democratic renewal and local engagement, it must start with tangible statutory assurances and mechanisms of community power, not delegated from the top down, but built and enabled from the ground up.
This means going further than the recent English Devolution and Community Empowerment bill to enshrine principles of double devolution into law, supporting community agency within upcoming neighbourhood governance structures, and embedding participatory processes and the co-ownership and management of local assets—learning key lessons from the world’s most accountable democratic systems, particularly at the local level.
Without this, we risk ceding the future to those who exploit disillusionment without offering meaningful solutions.”