District Councils’ Network - annual report to LGA Board 2024

Lead Member: Cllr Sam Chapman-Allen
Lead Officer: James Hood (Director)

Email: [email protected]
Address: 18 Smith Square, Westminster, SQ1P 3HZ  
Website: www.districtcouncils.info/
 

• 164 District Councils
• 5 Unitary Councils

The District Councils’ Network (DCN) is a cross-party network of 169 district and unitary councils. We are a special interest group of the Local Government Association, providing a single voice for all district services.

Our member councils in England deliver a wide range of essential local to over 21 million people – 37 per cent of England’s population. They cover 53 per cent of the country by area. DCN councils are home to 36 per cent of England’s businesses and 30 per cent of national Gross Domestic Product.

The DCN delivers value for our members by:

• supporting our councils and being advocates for the work they do and the challenges they face;
• facilitating collaboration, networking and access to information;
• influencing central government and the outside world to deliver the right national policy and funding framework for our councils to deliver the best possible services to residents;
• producing evidence-based research on the key issues facing our councils and wider local government.

DCN’s support to our membership aligns closely to that offered by the LGA to broader local government.
The LGA’s themes of improving and supporting local government are complemented by our Staff Development Programme which seeks to enhance future senior capability. Our Chief Executive Group offers a forum for the discussion of how our member councils can improve their performance and solve specific problems facing the sector – with guidance or suggestions disseminated by chief executives to colleagues in their regions.

Our lobbying and advocacy emphasises the fact that DCN seeks to collaborate with partners in local and central government. While we specifically promote the work of our member councils, this is in a spirit of cooperation with all other authorities.

We seek to strengthen our member councils’ voices and status within a context of seeking to strengthen local government’s voice and status overall. 

Over the past year we have enhanced our parliamentary work, lobbying and external communications.

We have implemented a new parliamentary strategy. This has given DCN member councils and the issues that matter to us much greater prominence with MPs, peers, select committees and ministers. DCN evidence has featured much more frequently in parliamentary debates and select committee inquiries. This has been driven by the excellent local data and examples that so many of our member councils have given us.

Our robust lobbying on funding has made clear to the Government the difficulties all our councils face and won some important victories including:

• unprecedented extra funding secured in the final 2024-25 Local Government Finance Settlement
• uplift in the Local Housing Allowance rates
• full cost recovery on major planning applications
• the easing of the top-down approach to waste reform.

We continue to lobby on behalf of districts on other matters, including:

• engaging all major national political parties on their plans for local government.
• raising awareness of the temporary accommodation crisis which is having a severe impact on many DCN member councils’ budgets and on many in our communities - securing high-profile national media coverage on this issue.
• reiterating our concerns about the Government’s waste consistency reforms.
• repeatedly engaging with parliamentarians on the need for district councils to have a full constituent role in Combined County Authorities.
• showcasing the work that all our members are doing to respond to support the most vulnerable people and emphasising how district council-led early intervention schemes reduce the pressure on the NHS.

Support and development for members

• DCN has expanded its highly valued Staff Development Programme, open to all our members as a huge opportunity to support rising star officers. The 2024 cohort consists of 95 officers. During the programme DCN invites SDP attendees to four training days and hosts a number of webinars.

Events

• We held our Annual Conference in March 2024, welcoming over 200 attendees. 

We ran a series of high-quality webinars and roundtables for our members throughout the year.