The Sustainable Communities Act has been described by 'Local Works', the organization that promoted the Bill in the following terms:

"On 23 October 2007 the Sustainable Communities Act became law. It is a remarkable piece of legislation: for the first time we have an Act of Parliament that discards the usual top-down decision making and also the nonsense that ‘consultation’ by the government is somehow empowering (when the opposite is the case as most people know).

This Act is special because it establishes for the first time a co-operative method of decision making, so that all the decisions are no longer made at the centre.

It is an Act that can empower citizens and will give effect to what the sponsors argued for the 5 years of the campaign that:

‘citizens and councils are the experts on their own problems and the solutions to them’...

The Sustainable Communities Act gives you power over decisions which affect your life."

Even Government Minister Phil Woolas told the House of Commons on 15 June 2007 that it is, "one of the most important such Acts in the last 40 years... I genuinely believe that it will change the relationships in British politics".

It works like this:

• By 23rd October 2008, the Secretary of State has to issue an invitation to local authorities to make proposals for furthering sustainable living. Such proposals could involve a transfer of responsibilities and money from one body to another (e.g. from central to local government).
• Local Authorities in turn have to establish panels of local people to think up proposals, and have to 'try to agree' what proposals are put forward. That is if the local authority wishes to take part, which it is not obliged to do.
• The Local Government Association (LGA) has to select which proposals to put to the Secretary of State.
• The Secretary of State has to 'try to agree' which proposals will be implemented.