LGA Chair Cllr O'Brien's address to the LGA Annual Conference on 7 July 2026.
Good afternoon, everyone and welcome to the LGA Annual Conference and Exhibition.
What a privilege it is to stand before you today as the newly elected Chair of the Local Government Association – what an honour.
For those who don’t know me, I’m Cllr Eamonn O’Brien, Leader of Bury Council for over 6 years now, and the lead for technical education and skills, and clean air on the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
Now for those of you who don’t know Bury – it’s the home of Victoria Wood, the home of the world famous Bury market and possibly home to half of all government departments by the end of the year.
And I know what you might be thinking – a politician travelling from Greater Manchester down south for an uncontested election.
But as I’ve always said: where local government leads, national government follows.
And I want to start properly by saying a thank you. Thank you to colleagues for placing their trust in me to lead this great organisation.
I want to pay a heartfelt tribute to my friend Cllr Louise Gittins who over the past two years has led the LGA with determination and an unwavering belief in what local government can achieve.
On behalf of every member, Louise, thank you very much.
Now every LGA Chair leaves a legacy for those who follow, but one former Chair set a standard for us all.
As the first LGA Chair, Lord Jeremy Beecham was a towering figure in local government whose commitment to communities and social justice left a profound legacy.
Following his sad passing earlier this year, please join me as we pause to remember him.
Thank you.
As your new Chair, I feel a deep sense of pride to lead the LGA. But, as you all know, to lead takes a team. And so, I want to recognise our political group leaders who I am proud to stand alongside today.
To Bev, Kevin, Stephen and Hannah: thank you for sharing your experiences of the LGA and for supporting me as I step into this role.
I also want to congratulate, Bridget, on your election, and you, Emily, as the new green group leader a great year for O'Briens'?
To Jenny and the amazing LGA team – thank you for the fantastic work you do and providing me such a warm welcome.
And what could be a more fitting way to demonstrate our collective impact than to open this year’s conference with that remarkable video: we, together, have achieved through the LGA on behalf of local government and the communities we serve.
- Together, we shaped and influenced legislation.
- Together we stood up for the sector at the COVID-19 Inquiry.
- Together we told the story of local government through the media nearly 15 thousand times.
- And together, through our sector-led improvement work, we delivered more than 3,400 instances of support – reaching every corner of the sector in England.
This is a statement of what we have achieved. What the LGA is proud to have delivered for its members.
That is why 316 out of 317 councils have either reconfirmed or rejoined LGA membership this year. Now that’s not just a statistic; it is a statement of confidence.
And that confidence has been earned.
I know the value of the LGA’s support because I have seen it from the inside.
As a member peer, I know what it means to welcome a peer challenge team into your authority and to receive the honest, constructive and supportive feedback that helps you to lead better, serve better and think bigger.
I also know what it means to look at the membership subscription and say with confidence: this is value for money.
For every £1 member authorities invest in LGA membership, we attract a £7 through external funding, grants, sponsorship and sector wide investment.
Our improvement support, workforce development, legal services, policy expertise and leadership training saves the sector tens of millions of pounds every year. Now this would cost many times more if we all procured it individually.
My ambition is that the LGA is your first port of call for anything that you need.
Because who is best placed to support and train our colleagues in local and strategic authorities? It is elected members and officers like you and me: people who have faced the challenges, made the decisions and delivered for our communities — time and again.
That is the principle at the heart of sector-led improvement: support for the sector, by the sector.
This year’s conference theme – From Neighbourhoods to Nations: Building Lasting Futures Locally – isn’t just a slogan. It is asking us to consider how we build a future we can be proud to pass on to the next generations.
With a new Prime Minister soon to take office, today we are publish our Building Lasting Futures Locally manifesto.
This publication asks the next Prime Minister to work with local and strategic authorities, in a modern, mature partnership, so that we, together can help shape long-term change through the next general election and beyond.
Because the test of national policy is not whether it sounds right in Whitehall and Westminster, but whether it changes lives in the places people call home.
The only way national government can ensure that parents have confidence that the needs of their children are being met in schools, that young people have hope for the future, that families have access to safe and secure accommodation, that communities feel safe and united, and that everyone can access the right care and support when they need it – is with a strong, financially resilient local government with the autonomy and accountability to make decisions locally.
Our job as local and strategic authorities is to work with mayors and central government to deliver together.
Now, we are at a moment of huge change in our sector. Devolution and local government reorganisation are reshaping the landscape with new strategic authorities emerging.
Wherever you sit on the devolution / LGR journey, what really matters is that every tier of the system is supported in this new landscape.
That is why the LGA is providing tailored support for established and emerging strategic authorities through our strategic authorities hub and our national adviser network.
And over the next few months, we will be deepening our engagement with strategic authorities and inviting them to formally join LGA membership.
Completing the devolution map means securing agreements that put place first, setting a clear route to further powers, and ensuring every community has the investment, autonomy and collaborative leadership needed to shape its own future.
We are also helping the sector through Local Government Reorganisation. We have heard loud and clear the specific challenges, concerns and implications for some of your areas, such as with your retaining your workforce and maintaining continuity of your services.
In our conversations with government, we are saying that LGR must protect and sustain those vital public services and provide a strong basis for service transformation over the long term. For the potential that this government is seeking to achieve through LGR to be realised, the expert view of councils needs to be embedded in the decision-making process.
Fundamentally, the wider public service reform agenda should not be done to communities – it should be something that is done with and shaped by communities. Not around institutions, boundaries or internal processes.
Local government already knows how to do this. From counties and districts to mets and towns and parishes, we are joining up services on the ground, delivering impact through prevention, through devolution, through technology-enabled reform and, importantly, convening partners around all of that.
And I want us to be agile and creative in how we work with communities to co-design services, to regenerate places, and to back local people as agents of change. Now, I have been making these arguments in Greater Manchester, and it is the case I intend to make, at every opportunity, in every conversation, in every room.
But that local impact can only deliver lasting futures if Whitehall backs it.
For example, on adult social care, for too long it has been treated as a secondary issue, a cost pressure, an afterthought behind the NHS.
However, through our ‘Care Where We Live’ report, which is also launching today, we will be making the case that investing in adult social care, prevention, and community-based support that is joined up, is one of the most important things we can do to improve wellbeing, reduce inequalities, support independence, ease hospital pressures and, importantly, build a society that genuinely cares for its people. It is decades of inaction that have driven us to this unsustainable juncture. We cannot again face the prospect of the necessary reforms simply not being delivered.
And we very much look forward to continuing the work with Baroness Casey and her team to bring about the changes that are needed.
With rising demand, constrained finances, and increasing complexity, we’ve all had little space to look beyond the immediate pressures we face.
Last week the LGA published its latest funding analysis revealing a black hole of £7 billion over the next three years.
But imagine what could happen if councils had the funding and the space to step back and ask bigger questions about how we prepare for the world our residents will be living in by 2040 and beyond.
Through our LG2040 programme, we are analysing the role and mandate of local government in a changing world. We consider developing more preventative, user centred ways of working, and in doing so supporting leaders across the sector to understand what’s coming next and the choices that will define our future.
As your new Chair, I will waste no time in getting around the country to visit your town halls and hear about what is working and what is not. My commitment to you is that I will bring these insights back to the LGA to ensure that our voice is genuinely a national one.
Because the strength of what we do and in this great organisation comes from the diversity and the depth of what you do in your local places.
And that is the reality I will be making in my conversations with government and through the stories we will be telling in the media, reinforcing in our campaigns and to Parliament.
This conference is an extraordinary opportunity.
Over the next few days take advantage of everything it has to offer.
Go to the sessions that challenge your assumptions. Visit the exhibition stands that spark ideas. Be inspired by the learnings within our Innovation Zone and take them home with you.
This community – this sector – delivers, and moments like this are when we remind ourselves of why we decided to stand for local office in the first place.
This is a moment for local government to speak with confidence about its strength and power.
I will work to ensure that your membership has impact, your voice is heard, and your successes are celebrated.
And together, we will show the strength, ambition and value in all that we can deliver.
Thank you