I would like to offer my warmest congratulations to Ian Hudspeth, the former Leader of Oxfordshire County Council and lately Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, who was recognised in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours list by being made an OBE.
This May saw elections like no other, and after a long weekend of counting, I’m pleased to say that our numbers increased along with our position on council administrations.
The intervention of Constitution and Devolution Minister Chloe Smith in January, about the local elections and the issues of campaigning and delivering of leaflets, was a major concern to me and one that made no sense at all.
Adult social care has been pushed to the bottom of the agenda for too long and the consequences are clearer than ever before.
On 6 May, voters went to the polls for the UK’s biggest ever set of local and national elections.
The Liberal Democrats have called on the Prime Minister to start urgent cross-party talks on social care reforms without delay, as a new report warns that local services are facing a ‘deluge’ of requests for care and support.
First of all, I would like to congratulate all those councillors who were elected on 6 May, especially the Liberal Democrat ones. We were holding elections in the most difficult of situations, during a major public health crisis.
Despite high hopes, June’s easing of lockdown was postponed and many of our councils are continuing to support communities and businesses through local outbreaks.
‘Take back control’ was a message that resonated with many people during the Brexit referendum, the fallout of which continues to fuel the public’s attitude to politics five years later.
In April 2013, the Government changed how crisis support was delivered.