While working on market/small towns we come across a number of terms, phrases and organisations that can be quite confusing to understand. To help find your way through this, we are developing a glossary of some of these key terms together with simple explanations. If you can’t find what you are looking for, drop us an email to alison.eardley@towns.org.uk

A

Action for Market Towns – is the leading charity supporting small towns across the United Kingdom.

Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) - the national umbrella body of the Rural Community Action Network which aims to support the rural community sector. AMT work with ACRE on a number of projects, including community-led planning. Visit ACRE wesbite.

Affordable Housing – policy is based around three themes – providing high quality homes in mixed sustainable communities for those in need; widening the opportunities for home ownership; offering greater quality, flexibility and choice to those who rent. CLG is the lead department.

amt-i – reasearch and consultancy division of Action for Market Towns. Visit amt-i website.

B

Barker Review – published in 2004, it presented recommendations to the Government for securing future housing needs.

Big Lottery Fund – the National Lottery fund for projects. AMT was awarded a Big Lottery grant in 2008 to support market town partnerships. Visit BLF website.

C

Communities and Local Government (CLG) – the Government department with responsibility for Community Epowerment and Housing among other policy areas. The Secretary of State is John Denham. Visit CLG website

Communties in control: real people, real power – sometimes called the Community Empowerment White Paper, this is the Government White Paper on how communities can have a bigger say in the way their local community/ services are developed, published in 2008 by CLG. View the document here.

Community Empowerment – the concept of giving more control back to communities, in terms of the way services are shaped and delivered in their area. CLG are the lead Government department on this, and published the ‘Communities in control: real people, real power’ White Paper in 2008.

Community Led Planning – a step-by-step structured process, led by local people, to create a vision and action plan for the local community. Government policy now recognises the importance of community planning, as illustrated in the Community Empowerment White Paper.

Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) – a new way of assessing local public services in England. It examines how well councils are working together with other public bodies to meet the needs of the people they serve. It is a joint assessment made by a group of six independent watchdogs. Results will be published on a new website from December 2009.

D

E

Eco-towns – Eco-towns are intended to be small new towns of at least 5-20,000 homes, which explot the potential to create a complete new settlement to achieve zero carbon development and more sustainable living using the best new design and architecture. Visit CLG’s page on Eco-towns which includes the prospectus.

Empowerment Fund – funding for organisations with charitable, philanthropic or benevolent purposes, to achieve a stronger relationship across the sector by working closely with 20-25 organisations on helping the department achieve its goals around key themes on the empowerment agenda. AMT is one of 15 successful organisations, having been granted Empowerment Funding in 2009.

F

G

Government Office – the Department for Communities and Local Government’s 10 regional offices, aiming to enable closer working with local authorities.

H

I

J

K

L

Local Area Agreement (LAA) – a three-year agreement developed by all upper tier authorities in partnership with its Local Strategic Partnership, negotiatied with the Government Office and signed off by the Secretary of State. The LAA targets are reviewed each year and are drawn from the aims of the overarching Sustainable Community Strategy. Find out more.

Local Development Framework (LDF) – a folder of local development documents that set out how planning will be managed in an area. Prepared by district, unitary or national park authorities, and read in conjunction with the Regional Spatial Strategy. Find out more.

Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 - the Act that brings into force the provisions made in the ‘Strong and Prosperous Communties – local government white paper’.

Local Government Association (LGA) - the national body representing local government. Visit them here.

Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) – a partnership bringing together local public partners such as the local authority, health, police, education, national park authorities, tourism bodies etc. The local authority is the ‘lead partner’ and the statutory responsible body for the LSP. A named list of public sector bodies now have a duty to co-operate in the LSP.

M

Market Towns Policy Forum – a new think tank established in 2009, which brings together individuals and organisations to promote the needs of market/ small towns, and undertake research into key issues facing market towns.

Multi Area Agreement (MAA) – a framework in which adjoining local authorities work in partnership, meaning they can go beyond administrative boundaries to work in a more strategic and co-ordinated way. They are a formed with a voluntary agreement between local authorities and can be useful in developing policy related to economic issues, taking into account travel to work zones, housing and employment markets.

N

National Association of British Market Authorities (NABMA) - a membership organisation supporting local or public authorities who have control of retail, wholesale, livestock markets, public abattoirs and pleasure fairs. Visit NABMA.

National Association of Local Councils (NALC) – represents the interests of town and parish councils in England – a total of around 8,500 councils. These councils haave powers to raise their own funds through precept and provide employment for over 25,000 staff, while their annual expenditure is in the region of £400 million. Visit NALC.

O

P

Q

R

Regional Spatial Strategy – Formerly known as Regional Planning Guidance, it provides a broad development strategy for 15 to 20 years. It incorporates the Regional Transport Strategy and, in the regions, is produced by the Regional Assemby and informs more local plans such as Local Development Documents the Local Transport Plans.

S

Strong and Prosperous Communities – the local government white paper – Published in October 2006, the white paper is on the side of individuals and families who want to make a difference, both to their own lives and to the communities in which they live. The vision is of revitalised local authorities, working with their partners, to reshape public services around the citizens and communities that use them. Read the white paper.

Sustainable Communities Act – gives new powers to communities and their elected councils to drive Government policy to tackle local economic, social and environmental issues. Download the guide here

Sustainable Communities Strategy - The top level plan of a local authority, produced by the Local Strategic Partnership and provides a vision for the development of the local authority area. It must link in to the plans at the Regional level, such as the Regional Spatial Strategy. Market towns strategies and plans should fit within the Sustainable Communities Strategy.

T

Towns Alive – the name of AMT’s Big Lottery funded programme aimed at supporting market town partnerships in improving the vitality and viabilaity of their towns.

U

V

W

Y

Z