With the publication of ‘Levelling up the UK’ and its 12 quantifiable ‘missions’, which are to be achieved by 2030, we can now fully explain to the communities and people that we represent exactly what this agenda means for them.
In April, most families will be facing a perfect storm of soaring energy prices, rising inflation, and the extra burden of Conservative hikes to both National Insurance and council tax. Many will struggle to pay the bills – and Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s thin package of support simply does not go far enough for most.
Water companies pumped polluting and harmful raw sewage into water sources more than 400,000 times in 2020, according to Environment Agency data.
The levelling up white paper has landed, heralding that bigger local government bodies, with power siphoned to the few, are better.
It’s a testing but all-too-familiar mix: funding cuts from central government, skyrocketing demand for local services, a growing population, tough choices, and communities vulnerable as they recover from the pandemic.
Continuing uncertainty around councils’ public health funding risks exacerbating a growing crisis of demand for support services, including for drug and alcohol treatment, the LGA has warned.
Developers have been warned by the Government that they must pay to fix the cladding crisis.
More than half of councils in England had to reduce the level of care and support they provided to vulnerable residents in January, because of growing numbers of social care staff on sick leave or isolating because of the Omicron variant.
