General Power of Competence

Section 1 of the Localism Act 2011 gives eligible local authorities (and, following later amendment, combined authorities and other specified public bodies) power to 'do anything that individuals generally may do'. This general power applies even to things that are, in nature or extent, 'unlike anything the authority may do apart from subsection (1)' or 'unlike anything that other public bodies may do' — a deliberately expansive formulation intended to displace the traditional common-law rule that a local authority could act only where a specific statutory power authorised it (the ultra vires doctrine).

The power is not limited to non-commercial activity. Section 1(4) confers power to exercise the general power 'anywhere in the United Kingdom or elsewhere', 'for a commercial purpose or otherwise for a charge, or without charge', and either for the benefit of the authority and its area or otherwise. The general power sits alongside, rather than replacing, any other specific statutory powers the authority has: neither is limited by the mere existence of the other, so an authority can rely on whichever source of power best supports what it wants to do.

Because the power is defined by reference to what 'an individual with full capacity' could do, it is inherently subject to the same general legal constraints that bind any person — for example, an authority still cannot use the general power to override statutory prohibitions or restrictions found elsewhere, and the Act imposes further specific limitations in sections 2 to 4 (such as preserving pre-commencement limits on charging and trading). The power was a central plank of the coalition government's 'localism' agenda, intended to reduce councils' dependence on express statutory authorisation for everyday and innovative activity alike.