Briefings and responses

Since the referendum, the LGA has taken a neutral position on the UK’s membership of the EU.

Good mental health is essential for a healthy and prosperous society. Unfortunately, it is easier to focus on what happens when a person becomes mentally ill, and how the health service intervenes, rather than how to keep our communities mentally well in the first place. Improving and maintaining good mental health for communities is a key priority for councils.

Technological and lifestyle efforts have an important role to play in addressing climate change and meeting the net zero target, but responsibility cannot rest with individuals alone. Compelling, appropriate and affordable sustainable alternatives must be available to the general public to enable them to make sustainable choices.

We are pleased that in the recent Spending Round, the Government has responded to our calls and provided desperately needed new money, including £1 billion for social care (children’s and adults), as well as confirming the continuation of existing grants. However, these one-off, piecemeal injections of funding hamper councils’ ability to plan for anything beyond a short-term horizon. Social care needs to be given long term funding certainty in the same way as the NHS, and we look forward to seeing the Government’s plans for long-term adult social care reform.

The LGA supports local authorities in their ambition to tackle climate change and reduce carbon emissions across housing and all their business in the shift towards achieving net zero carbon.

We are calling for the devolution of the bus service operator grant and for all councils to be given the ability to franchise local services.

In the previous two years of the Housing Advisers Programme, we have funded over 100 councils to help councils build homes, reduce homelessness, plan for population ageing, understand the student housing market and increase supply of modular housing.

The Bill does not consider how this rural growth component fits into the proposed land management system, or how it will link to the forthcoming UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). This funding is too important to rural areas to fall through the gaps of the new system. We would recommend the Government clarify, through this legislation and guidance, how new growth funding arrangements will be incorporated into post-EU funding.

Councils are continuing to tell us that pressures on the High Needs funding block is one of the most serious financial challenges that they are currently dealing with and we are calling on the Government to provide councils with long-term certainty on levels of high needs funding.

The NHS does not operate in isolation. The commitment for increased funding for the NHS will only be maximised if there is an equivalent scale of investment in social care, public health and prevention services that both improve people’s health, wellbeing and independence and relieve pressure on frontline NHS services.