# The Sustainable Communities Regulations 2008, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations, which are made under section 5 of the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 (“the Act”), concern matters relating to the making by local authorities of proposals under section 2 of the Act. They apply in relation to England and come into force on 3rd November 2008 (regulation 1).
As required by section 5(4) of the Act, regulation 4 requires certain steps to be taken by a local authority before it makes proposals under section 2 of the Act. Before making any proposals—
(a) regulation 4(2) requires a local authority to have regard to the guidance issued by the Secretary of State under section 5(5) of the Act; and
(b) regulation 4(3) requires an authority to establish or recognise a panel of representatives, to consult the panel about any proposal and to try to reach agreement with the panel about proposals.
Regulation 5 makes provision about the constitution of these panels. Sufficient representatives must be involved in a panel so that local persons are adequately represented by the panel, but there is no breach of this requirement if a local authority takes reasonable steps to involve a group of local persons and no representatives of the group become so involved.
Under section 5(5)(a) of the Act the Secretary of State must issue guidance to local authorities about making proposals, which must include guidance about the inclusion of persons from under-represented groups on a panel of representatives. As required by section 5(8) of the Act, regulation 3 defines under-represented groups for these purposes.
Under section 3 of the Act the Secretary of State must appoint a selector to consider any proposals made by local authorities and to prepare a short-list of those proposals for consideration by the Secretary of State. Regulation 6 requires the selector also to prepare a written report on the proposals and to send this report to the Secretary of State at the same time as it sends the short-list.
A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/2694/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/sustainable-communities-regulations-2008/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.