A new hope - first magazine for councillors

The LGA’s Local Government White Paper sets out how to deliver more and better for residents

Local government is the key to solving many of our biggest national challenges.

We work at the front line of people’s daily lives. We shape places, provide vital services that hold our communities together, keep people safe, and create the conditions for prosperity and wellbeing.

Yet there has never been a more difficult time for local government.

Rising demand and costs have meant the toughest of choices, with less to spend on the services that communities value, such as fixing the roads as fast as we would like and repairs to street lamps. Nonetheless, the sector continues to show great resilience and to innovate.

With a general election in July, now must be a time for change and new hope.

In that spirit, the LGA’s Local Government White Paper sets out how – with a new, equal and respectful central-local partnership – we can provide long-term sustainability to councils, deliver local and national economic growth, and support our people and places.

The LGA has consulted widely, including with more than 200 local authority leaders and 150 local authority chief executives across England. Their messages are clear: we start from a strong base.

Rooted in a democratic mandate, councils are inherently close to their local communities and can deliver tailored services to address specific needs. This has been seen recently in the sector’s universal response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Offering more than 800 services and working with a broad range of partners, councils can convene tailored solutions for our residents, including people of all ages who access council services to help live their best life.

Local government has what it takes to deliver inclusive growth in partnership with the next government. We are ambitious for our communities and know that many more residents can be supported back into work.

Sustainable funding is essential for local government’s important, wide remit. We now need bold, creative solutions. And we must get back to longer-term settlements, end the proliferation of funding pots, and have straightforward accountability based on outcomes for residents.

We are pressing for immediate change so that local government can start to build back straight away for communities. This means practical action on the biggest challenges, including better support for children, homeless families, adults who draw on care and support, and on climate change and housing (see panels, below).

We also have a plan for longer-term reform. It is time to give local government the powers needed to deliver our ambitions for place-making, with new powers to bring partners together to get services working better, drive inclusive growth and regulate failing markets.

We represent local residents and are uniquely placed to bring agencies together around their needs. We work together to provide support to places facing the biggest challenges.

It is time to give prevention the focus it deserves. Through community services (including housing) and joint action with the NHS, we can help people stay well from early years to later life. This is as much about supporting mental as physical health.

As a nation, we must stop wasting public money by only intervening at the point of crisis. It is time to prioritise innovation and freedom from bureaucracy – ending bureaucratic reporting and exploiting the full potential of technology, including artificial intelligence (AI).

And it is time for a new model of equal partnership between local and national government, backed by statute and based on international best practice. We have so much to offer. This must be a relationship based on trust, where people are at the heart of everything we do.

Our white paper expands on these priorities for driving change, sets out, in detail, the challenges and opportunities we face, and calls for honest, open dialogue about what local government needs to be.

What is the scale of support we want to be able to provide, and how should it be delivered? Are we to be the local safety net or is our future role broader? Now is the time for radical thinking to prepare for a new future.

“We must stop wasting public money by only intervening at the point of crisis”

To support this dialogue, whoever forms the next government should:

establish a new partnership model for working with local government and delivering the recommendations set out in this paper
commission a major new review of how public services can work together to transform places, including through invest-to-save models of prevention
work with us to bring together learning across government departments on ‘what works’ to increase cost-effectiveness and innovation, enabling the development of cross-cutting solutions. We will support this by contributing learning from existing sector-led improvement support and best practice from local government.

The LGA will be undertaking a significant programme of work to take forward the ideas in our white paper.

We will be publishing new pieces of research and establishing cross-sector working groups to focus on the longer-term solutions.

Ahead of the general election, we will be talking to all the major political parties about resetting the relationship between local and national government, and the offers we can make to work with the next administration to take forward a new sustainable future for public services, and support inclusive economic growth. We want the next government to be able to drive partnership action to start tackling the immediate challenges right away.

“The paper calls for honest, open dialogue about what local government needs to be”

We will also set out 100 specific actions based on the direction of travel set out in this white paper, to progress this in the first days of the new Parliament.

Working in this new way will build firm foundations for longer-term reform and the renewal of local government for the benefit of local people.

National challenges 1

Delivering inclusive growth

Devolution that supplies long-term financial certainty, financial flexibility and additional powers can enable councils and combined authorities to make the best decisions for their places. Specific white paper proposals include:

A long-term and place-led economic strategy setting out a joint vision for inclusive growth and prosperity.
A place-based employment and skills offer to improve outcomes for young people and adults, support employers with their skills needs, and develop a culture of lifelong learning.
Action to stabilise the existing growth-funding landscape, to ensure continued investment and develop an integrated multi-year growth fund.
A stronger focus on data to inform local and national strategies around growth and prosperity.
Investment in local economic development capabilities to boost council capacity and expertise.

National challenges 2

Building the homes we need

With the right reforms, local government can play a central role in dealing with the housing crisis. LGA proposals include:

Powers for councils and combined authorities to build more affordable, good-quality homes at scale, quickly, where they are needed.
Reform of Right to Buy to avoid continued net loss of housing stock.
Abolition of permitted development rights and reform of viability assessments for proposed housing developments, with all planning applications required to deliver affordable housing requirements as per Local Plans.
New legislation to ban Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions of renters.
Further investment in social housing by allowing local government continued access to preferential borrowing rates through the Public Works Loan Board.
A commitment to uprate local housing allowances rates to the 30th percentile of local rents beyond 2025/26.
The rollout of five-year local housing deals by 2025 to areas that want them.
Government support to set up a new local Housing Advisory Service.
Publication of a cross-departmental strategy setting out national commitments to prevent homelessness.

National challenges 3

Supporting our children and young people

Local government plays a critical role in supporting children and young people who draw on care and support – those in care, in need of protection, and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Our proposals include:

Writing off of all Dedicated Schools Grant deficit.
Pausing Ofsted and Care Quality Commission SEND area inspections and refocusing the inspectorates’ activity on identifying the national, systemic issues with the SEND system, and using their findings to inform how it can be improved.
Action to build capacity in mainstream education to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.
Starting work on a cross-government plan for children, supported by improved budget sharing at a local level.
A review of early years education and childcare.
Significantly improved access to children’s mental health and wellbeing services.
Access to appropriate placements for children in care and secure settings.
The introduction of a separate judgement on inclusion in the Ofsted school inspection framework.
Reform of the SEND statutory framework.

National challenges 4

Reforming and sustainably funding adult social care

Adult social care is one of local government’s biggest areas of spending, and the financial position is seriously challenging, historically and currently. LGA proposals include:

Adult social care funded adequately, sustainably, and with trust in councils as democratically accountable bodies.
Support for the voluntary sector and unpaid carers.
More therapeutic-led reablement – intensive short-term interventions with follow-up support – which support recovery after time spent in hospital.
Increased care worker pay to help tackle the serious recruitment and retention issues facing the sector.
Joint work with government, and better joint working between the NHS and local government to support people.
Focus on prevention and recovery services, including steps to support the voluntary sector to provide fast, low-level support.
Investment in primary and community services and intermediate care.

National challenges 5

Supporting place-making

We know from experience that you cannot build a safe and thriving high street from a desk in Whitehall. We need a new approach to maximise the value of place by allowing more variation, not less.

We need devolution that transfers powers to communities, and that recognises local authorities and their leaders are best placed to make decisions for their places, combined with sufficient funding so they can deliver local priorities that go beyond their statutory obligations. Only then can councils deliver on this crucial place-shaping role.

National challenges 6

Backing local climate action

A new approach can take advantage of local government’s role as community and place leaders, as housing, planning, transport, environment and health authorities, and as procurers, asset holders, land managers, conveners and enablers. Our proposals include:

Work with local government on a renewed Local Climate Action Delivery Programme, to provide the step change needed for moving forward local climate action. This should focus on building a single national framework for mitigation and adaptation.
Focus the Local Climate Action Delivery Programme on 10 local climate action missions to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change up to 2050, including building public trust and inclusivity, retrofitting social and fuel-poor homes, and delivering zero waste through the ‘polluter pays’ principle.
Translate missions to reality through local climate action plans covering all areas.

This is an edited version of the LGA’s Local Government White Paper. To read it in full, please visit our website