Since 1997 powers have bit by bit trickled away from local councils into the clutches of central and regional government. This has undermined local democracy and increasingly allows people too little say over decisions that directly affect them.

Without real local democracy, communities are weakened: social responsibility, civic involvement and the inclusion of vulnerable people in social life are all reduced.

I welcome plans announced last week to give powers back to local communities. Proposals include abolishing regional planning and housing powers, returning discretion back to local communities; giving local authorities power to levy business rate discounts so they can help local services; greater use of direct democracy, including allowing residents to veto high council tax rises, and instigate local referenda on local issues.

For their part Councils will be obliged to publish detailed information on expenditure - including the pay and perks of senior staff, who will no longer be 'rewarded for failure' if sacked. The ineffective Standards Board would be scrapped, as would the flawed rules of 'pre-determination', which gag councillors from standing up for their constituents' views on local issues.

Local people will be able to choose the organisational structures of their local councils. This would have allowed proposals for the new unitary authority in Shropshire to have been subject to a vote, rather than being imposed despite having been rejected where local ballots took place. So in future those who do not like the outcome of such a ballot will have to live with it, rather than insultingly dismissing those who "voted with their hearts not their heads".