The white paper is being finalised by local government secretary Ruth Kelly and is expected to be published this week. It is predicted to include the possibility setting up neighbourhood bodies like parish councils that would be able to issue a ‘call for action’ to councils who they deemed were failing to tackle issues like graffiti, street cleaning, grime, community safety and youth facilities etc.

The Council would then be obliged to demonstrate what they intended to do to improve the situation and, as a last resort, the neighbourhood bodies could theoretically take control of the service themselves or appoint a manager to do so.

The white paper will also include powers to encourage directly elected mayors by removing the current requirement to hold a local referendum on the subject. The concept of elected mayors has largely been a flop in the UK with just 13 in place including London’s Ken Livingstone.

Those Councils that accept an elected mayor will be given greater freedoms and local powers and possibly more funding.

Enabling powers will also allow the UK’s big cities to form administrative regions based on their travel to work areas and spheres of economic influence rather than county or city boundaries. Such ‘city regions’ would take responsibility for a range of local government functions and may also be given powers over transport, economic planning and skills agendas.