As the UK exits the European Union (EU), national and local government should consider how communities in England can take greater control over the public service and investment decisions that affect their lives.
KEY MESSAGES
- As the UK exits the European Union (EU), national and local government should consider how communities in England can take greater control over the public service and investment decisions that affect their lives.
- Bringing power and resources closer to people is the key to giving local leaders the ability to deliver better outcomes for their communities and drive inclusive growth across the country.
- Repatriating EU legislation should be an opportunity to identify legislation and regulations that might be amended to provide local leaders with greater flexibility to tailor national requirement to benefit local communities and businesses. An example of this would be the EU procurement rules which we estimate currently cost local government £2.6 billion a year to adhere to.
- The Government should build on the positive progress that has been made with regard to devolution to councils to date, and bring forward plans to enhance the devolved powers of all areas in England outside the mayoral model where appropriate.
- National and local government need to work together to develop an answer to the ‘English’ question and give local communities across the UK an equal right to take control of the key decisions that affect their lives.
- We want the Government to publish an English Devolution Bill in the first Queen’s Speech post Brexit, offering local governments the opportunity to enhance the devolved powers of all areas of England.
- It is vital that local government retains a formal advisory role in the EU law and policy-making process through its membership of the EU Committee of the Regions (CoR).
- The LGA, together with the local government associations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, have been in discussion with the UK Government about how this advisory role might be replicated in UK law. Our shared ambition is to replicate the advisory role of local government in the UK post-exit, without creating new bureaucracies.
- We welcomed the assurances we received from Government regarding the replication of a body like the CoR and will work with Government to deliver this, once the written ministerial statement setting out the Government’s plans has been published.