Local decision-making and sustainable development: case studies
A new set of case studies, co-published by the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) and the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), demonstrate how some local authorities and their partners are tackling the challenge of putting sustainable development at the heart of local decision-making processes.
They show how taking a sustainable development approach can strengthen local policy-making, highlighting ways in which other local authorities and partnerships might follow suit.
The UK Government’s new statutory guidance, Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities, emphasises that, to a greater extent that previously, sustainability should be central to the content of two key local plans. The Sustainable Community Strategy – the 'overarching plan' for a local area – should have sustainability at its heart: the "Strategy’s economic, social and environmental priorities should therefore demonstrate how they support each other in an integrated way." In turn, the Local Area Agreement should be the "shorter-term delivery mechanism for the Sustainable Community Strategy."
The SDC/IDeA case studies not only set out what has been achieved, but also how these achievements were made and how barriers were overcome. This is to help other local authorities and Local Strategic Partnerships understand how they might replicate this good practice.
The case studies were developed by CAG Consultants for the SDC and have been updated by the IDeA. They are the first output from the SDC's Capability for Local Sustainability project, which has brought together key Government departments and national stakeholders to explore ways to improve the capability of local government and its partners to deliver sustainable development. The SDC will publish the findings from this project later this year. These case studies are also published on the IDeA’s Partnerships and Place Library.
Case Studies
Who? |
What? |
How? |
| Cornwall | Integrating sustainability into strategy development | Sustainable Community Strategy and LAA |
| Birmingham | Taking a lead on climate change and sustainable procurement | Sustainable Community Strategy and LAA |
| Cumbria | Building sustainability appraisal into local priority-setting | Partnership working and sustainability appraisal |
| Sutton Partnership | Creating a genuinely sustainable local vision | Sustainable Community Strategy |
| Gloucestershire | Making sustainable development a cross-cutting theme | Partnership working |
| Hounslow | Evaluating sustainability | Sustainability Standard Toolkit |
| Islington | Putting climate change at the heart of the LSP | Climate Change Partnership |
| Oldham | Overcoming historic obstacles to develop leadership on sustainability | Oldham Partnership |
| Leicester | Using climate change to establishing high-level commitment to sustainable development | Leicester Partnership |
| Dudley | Sustainability as a cross cutting theme for the next generation | LAA (NGLAA) |
| North Somerset Partnership | Towards integrating sustainable development | Sustainable Community Strategy and LAA |
In conjunction with this, CAG has developed a summary of good practice in the case studies
