Did you know that local authorities had a general power to promote the well-being of their populations? No, neither did I. Apparently, local authorities were pushing the envelope of all sorts of specific powers, so, in 2000, the government gave them a general power to do good. But people said they didn’t use it, hence an evaluation.

The actual report Evaluation of the take-up and use of the Well‑Being Power: Research Summary (at http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/1061446.pdf) is not terribly helpful, because it doesn’t actually tell you what was possible; it’s mainly about making senior people in local government more aware. The interesting point is that you have to tell the top people in local government about something new, as well as the grass-roots. Another point is that they did economic and environmental things first, and only moved on to social things later – who knows what, it doesn’t say.

You have to look at the practical examples report published at the same time for more useful information, although merely knowing about the power might help some local organisations. This is at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/10614461.pdf. Even this is fairly summary, but it includes getting a ’symbolic’ share in a community partnership project and help to a community hospital.

Two things about this: one is that too many public authorities focus on economy and environment when they could make a real difference to the social, if they thought about it more often. The second is that people might think about it more often if useful practical examples are around, so the second document is a useful adjunct to the first.

There might be more information in the detailed academic publications, which are cited in the reports. You might be able to get your local authority to use this power to do something useful, n’est-ce pas?