The Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities (outside London) - annual report to LGA Board 2024

Lead Member: Councillor Sir Stephen Houghton CBE
Lead Officer: Geoff Winterbottom

Email: [email protected]
Address: PO BOX 609, Plaza One, Westgate, Barnsley, S70 2DR
Telephone: 01226 773 142
Website: www.sigoma.gov.uk

To lobby central government in order to help secure sufficient, sustainable and fair funding so that our members can maintain vital services and continue to invest in improving their local areas.

SIGOMA’s priorities are set out in our SIGOMA Manifesto covering local government finance, levelling up, children’s services, adult social care, transport, public health, housing, devolution, education, climate change and net zero and welfare provision. 

In 2024-25, we will be focusing on areas of significant pressure for our members: 

• Local government finance – securing fair, sufficient and sustainable funding for our members, including timely multi-year settlements, a reset of business rates, and the fair funding review.
• Children’s services – tackling the growing cost of children’s services through designated funding for preventative services, an increase in the quantum of funding to meet demand, and an effort to tackle profiteering in the residential market.
• Adult social care – creating a sustainable adult social care system, through certainty on reforms for adult social care, greater funding for preventative services and a review of how adult social care is funded. 
• Housing – addressing the source of growing demand for housing and homelessness services, including amendments to right-to-buy to reduce the loss of social housing, concerted effort, backed by needs-based funding, to build more social housing, and changes to Housing Revenue Accounts and Housing Benefit which are causing deficits for many authorities.

These priorities align with the LGA’s theme 1, a sustainable financial future, and theme 3, putting people first.

Participate in bi-monthly local government sector calls with DLUHC, other government departments and other local government sector representatives to facilitate information sharing.

Organise and host meetings of our Technical Officer and Full Members’ groups to share our research, detail the progress of our campaigns, facilitate discussion and provide an opportunity for officers and members to contribute their views and ideas.

Provide a regular email bulletin to keep SIGOMA Officers up to date with the latest policy developments, legislation changes, funding allocations and technical insights in local government.

Produce PR and Op-ed pieces for the national, regional, local and sector press to communicate our stance and make the case for a fairer and more sustainable future for local government.

Utilise an active and growing presence on social media to highlight the pressures on local government, provide solutions and ensure our content reaches a wide audience.

Conduct surveys and circulate queries to provide an overview to members of how other member councils are handling and managing the big problems facing the sector, such as inflationary pressures.

Our year in numbers (May 2022 to May 2023)

• Submitted evidence in 11 Government consultations and inquiries and attended five working groups.
• Attended over 30 sector calls with Government officials.
• Organised three officer meetings, including a Local Government Finance update.
• Hosted five full members’ meetings.
• Had over 100 substantive press appearances across the national press, regional press, local press and sector press.
• Daily tweets and growing social media presence
• Sent approximately 200 officer bulletins, keeping our Officers up to date with Government policy and announcements.
• Provided four on-the-day officer briefings for the Autumn Statement, Provisional Settlement, Final Settlement and Spring Budget.

Campaigning and advocating for our members

SIGOMA represents our members’ interests through a range of platforms such as working and steering groups, government consultations and inquiries, and local government sector calls with DLUHC.

We regularly communicate the challenges facing our local authorities and their solutions to Members of Parliament, Ministers, and the political parties to encourage change from government.

Research and policy development

SIGOMA regularly conducts in-depth analysis and research on areas of pressure for member councils, such as local government finance, children’s services and adult social care, to understand and highlight these challenges. We use this in our campaigning and communications work to suggest policy changes.

Supporting SIGOMA members

SIGOMA supports elected members, officers and senior officers at our member councils through our various networks, including:

• analysing relevant government proposals and legislation for their impact on and fairness to our members
• hosting meetings of our technical officer and Full Members’ groups to share our research, detail the progress of our campaigns, facilitate discussion and provide an opportunity for officers and Members to contribute their views and ideas. In 2024-25, we will be establishing a chief executive’s Network in addition to these groups.
• providing regular email bulletins to policy officers, technical officers and directors of finance to draw attention to the latest policy developments, legislation changes, funding allocations and insights in local government.
• conducting surveys amongst our membership to feed their views and experience into our research.
• facilitating a forum for discussion and information sharing by circulating queries from members, enabling our members to understand how other member councils are handling and managing the big problems facing the sector.

Communications and press activity

SIGOMA regularly secure appearances in the national, regional, local and sector press to communicate our stance and make the case for a fairer and more sustainable future for local government. In 2023-24, we secured over 210 press appearances including regular appearances in the Guardian, Financial Times, Local Government Chronicle and Municipal Journal, and several times on ITV News.

We utilise an active and growing presence on social media to highlight the pressures on local government and ensure our content reaches a wide audience.