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“Councils are responsible for shaping their places and to do this effectively they need data about the activities and performance of the rest of the public sector (including central government) in their local authority area. Therefore, the new Local Authority Data Explorer should include a wider set of metrics in future and not just those about council performance. 

Every area in England should be handed a new local housing deal by 2025 to spark a “generational step-change” in council housebuilding.

"More than nine in 10 councils are experiencing staff recruitment and retention difficulties across a diverse range of skills, professions and occupations."

"While more needs to be done to boost recycling to reach national targets and even higher standards, avoiding creating waste in the first place is the best way to decrease how much ends up in landfill."

Councils have said the way the concessionary travel scheme is funded by Whitehall is unfit for purpose and prevents councils from investing in more reliable bus services.

One in 10 councils surveyed had a councillor who had stepped down in their authority since May 2021 due to the requirement for them to attend council meetings in-person.

Making more digital health checks available is a useful tool to detect certain illnesses but it should be treated as an addition to not a replacement of a physical health check

The value of the Healthy Start voucher scheme for families should be increased to keep pace with the rising cost of food.

Ensuring local services are as accessible as possible to everyone in their communities is important to councils

Councils are very concerned by the findings of this report. It is not right that a child’s ability to do well at school is potentially jeopardised by the conditions of the building in which they study.