Legal mechanism

An Act to enable the Borough

Draft working title: the Modern Royal Charters and Strategic Enterprise Act.

The Bill is a single primary statute. It does not rewrite local government for the whole country. It authorises His Majesty, on ministerial advice and after an affirmative Commons vote, to grant a Royal Charter over a named footprint — and it specifies what that Charter may lawfully take over, what it must pay its neighbours, and how the Crown can take it back.

Parts 1–2

Designation

  • •Short title: Modern Royal Charters and Strategic Enterprise Act.
  • •Extent: England and Wales.
  • •A Charter Area is created by Letters Patent on the advice of the Secretary of State, confirmed by affirmative resolution in the Commons.
  • •Minimum 500 hectares of brownfield, under-used corridor, or designated growth land.
  • •Initial term of ninety-nine years, renewable on petition to the Crown.
  • •The Trust Corporation is not a Crown servant; it holds assets in trust for the Charter objects.

Part 3

Officers and franchise

  • •High Steward appointed by the Court on a fixed term of at least five years, on published performance metrics.
  • •Court of Assistants: 4 capital, 3 commercial, 3 residential, plus non-voting neighbouring liaison.
  • •Commercial roll: occupiers with five or more local employees; votes weighted by payroll bands, capped at 15% for any group.
  • •Residential roll: parliamentary electors who hold freehold, leasehold, or a tenancy of at least twelve months.

Part 4

Planning carve-out

  • •TCPA 1990, Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, and CIL regulations disapplied inside the Area.
  • •A Prescribed Pattern Book is ratified within six months: typologies, heights, materials, setbacks, open space.
  • •A Certificate of Conformance is deemed approved if the Master Architect does not particularise a divergence within fourteen business days.
  • •Statutory consultee duties to Natural England, the Environment Agency, Historic England, and National Highways are disapplied.
  • •In their place: an Environmental Indemnity Bond of at least £50 million in escrow with HM Treasury, plus strict liability in tort and private nuisance for harm outside the Area.

Part 5

Covenant and levy

  • •Every conveyance and long tenancy takes effect subject to the Civic Covenant: service standards, aesthetic and behavioural covenants, specific-performance remedies.
  • •Thirty days of failed standards: covenant-holders may seek up to 40% levy abatement or escrow of fees.
  • •Council tax and non-domestic rates are disapplied. A single Consolidated Municipal Levy is set on floor area and use.
  • •Neighbouring authorities receive 12.5% of gross annual levy revenue and 10% of initial capital receipts from freehold alienation — un-hypothecated.

Part 6

Tribunal and reservation

  • •A Charter Borough Arbitral Tribunal has exclusive jurisdiction over covenants, conformance notices, the levy, and internal property disputes.
  • •Awards are enforceable as High Court judgments. Ordinary judicial review is confined to action wholly outside the Act or Letters Patent.
  • •The Crown retains sovereignty, the Crown Court retains indictable crime, and defence and intelligence powers are untouched.
  • •Systemic insolvency, a national-security breach, or a gross irremediable covenant failure can bring a Crown Commissioner and, in the last case, revocation of the Charter.

The Bill requires a Civic Covenant. The worked draft is here: Charter Borough Civic Covenant.

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