On behalf of its membership, the cross-party LGA regularly submits to Government
consultations, briefs parliamentarians and responds to a wide range of parliamentary inquiries. Our recent
responses to government consultations and parliamentary briefings can be found here.
The LGA supports the Government’s undertaking to address the abuse and exploitation of our online environment and social media through the creation of duty of care on online platforms, the creation of codes of practice, and the role of a regulator in monitoring and enforcing compliance. Whilst the internet and social media has undoubtable enriched our lives, councils have a strong interest in making our online environment safe and should be regarded as important stakeholders in the development of this policy.
People can be vulnerable in a wide range of different ways. Councils are often at the forefront of understanding, mitigating and managing this complexity in their local communities.
Coastal towns have suffered from underfunding and underinvestment from central Government. They often have poor transport infrastructure, poor digital connectivity, poor healthcare facilities, an aging population and as a result, disproportionately high levels of deprivation.
We welcome the proposal for businesses to provide more regular information to the Valuation Office Agency, as part of a move to more frequent valuations. This must be accompanied by measures to significantly reduce the backlog of appeals.
LGA commissioned research found that councils are facing a high needs funding shortfall of £667 million in the 2019-20 financial year and this funding gap could rise to £1.6 billion by 2021.
We welcome the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee’s recommendation that the business rates system needs to be modernised to ensure online business make a fair contribution.
A multi-agency approach is needed to tackle this crime, with flexibility in the new package of support to ensure services can be tailored to the needs of different areas.
"If the Government’s air quality plans and any new local powers are to be successful, they need to be underpinned by local flexibility and sufficient funding which needs to be addressed in the Spending Review. "