Baroness Natalie Bennett gave the Green Party's take on levelling up, devolution and rejuvenating the high street ahead of her speech at Hadleigh Pool and Leisure Centre at 7pm tonight.

Although Robert Lindsay and Leigh Jamieson represent the Greens at Babergh level in a number of villages near Hadleigh, the town is not represented by any ward members for the party at the district council, although that could change at the May elections.

Baroness Bennett, who led the Green Party between 2012 and 2016 and became the second Green Party peer in 2019, said: "Suffolk is a hugely important area for the Green Party and for me personally.

"We have the possibility of taking over and running councils in the county after May's elections – and really delivering for its residents.

"For me, Suffolk has a lovely history because it was actually the first local Green Party I visited in 2012 when I was first elected party leader. I've lost count of the number of times I've been back.

"The importance of the Greens to communities is growing around the country, and Suffolk is leading the way.

"The Greens lead and other parties eventually follow. We've seen that in things like our success in bringing about 20mph speed limits in residential areas across many local authorities and acknowledgement of the climate emergency.

"It's time for Greens to be running things because our society and environment can't wait for others to catch on to the ideas and plans we have ready to deliver.

"An obvious area of change is housing. More than half of Suffolk's housing stock is over 50 years old.

"In other regions, the Green Party has initiated cooperation and pooling of resources between councils to retrofit homes at scale.

"We're also focused on the fact that we need good, reliable and affordable public transport.

"There are two key problems with the broader concept of levelling up.

"Firstly, pretty much everyone except the Green Party assumes it means becoming more like London. I don't think that's a good model to build on and it's certainly not a viable one for Suffolk.

"Secondly, Westminster is pulling the strings. They are deciding where the money from deals is directed and the devolution structures.

"Having one directly-elected mayor to put all your trust and faith into is also a structural problem.

"I say we should instead level up from the grassroots, by supporting independent businesses, cooperatives and local people to shape their communities.

"The Green Party in the House of Lords will be putting down amendments to the levelling up and regeneration bill in the next week or so.

"I'm looking at an amendment that considers the problem of empty shops in our high streets, which often have absentee owners based in tax havens.

"It can be very hard to trace who the owners are. But I would like a mechanism whereby councils can decide to make a shop that has been empty for six months useful for the community.

"This could be by opening it up to a community group or arranging a shop so multiple new microbusinesses could rent a table to provide their products or services from for a small fee.

"Think about the vibrancy a high street could have if you don't just have empty shops waiting for chain stores to buy them up, but you have a community where people have the chance to try setting up new businesses."

Baroness Bennett will speak at Hadleigh Pool and Leisure Centre at 7pm tonight.

Local elections for Babergh, Mid Suffolk, West Suffolk, East Suffolk and Ipswich councils will take place in May.