What is the Bill?
This legislation sets out a comprehensive restructure for local government in England. Its intention is to empower local action.
What do we want to see in the Bill?
The Wildlife Trusts believe that in order to be meaningful, this empowerment should include measures communities can use to protect themselves from the growing impacts of climate change and nature decline.
This empowerment to act against environmental decline is largely missing from the Bill.
The Wildlife Trusts are working with communities, local councils and parliamentarians to fill the climate and nature gap in the Bill, through measures like:
- environmental duties for councils
- new rights for communities to buy nature-rich spaces
As local government takes new shape in England, community nature and climate action must be at its heart.
The timeline of the Bill
The Bill was introduced to the House of Commons in September 2025 and moved to the House of Lords in December 2025. It is expected to complete its remaining stages in Parliament over the first half of 2026.
Read our briefings
Throughout the parliamentary stages of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, we have produced a series of briefings.
Briefing for Lords report stage
Briefing for Lords 2nd Reading
Briefing for Commons 2nd Reading
Briefing for Commons Report Stage
The gap where nature should be
Local government reforms will fare better if, as originally promised, they include measures to help local authorities respond to environmental decline. Yet currently there is a gap where nature should be in this Bill. Read our assessment of what needs to happen to make sure local authorities have the strong tools they need to protect the communities they serve from the consequences of climate change and nature loss.
