Our parliamentary lobbying is integral to what we do for councils. We work with our network of parliamentary supporters, including our Vice-Presidents (those with a strong interest in the work of local government who champion its causes in Parliament), to promote positive change and public service reform.
This includes lobbying on legislation, supporting councillors and officers giving evidence to parliamentary committees, and bringing together councils, MPs and Peers at events. We also work with a range of partner organisations and stakeholders to help influence parliamentary decisions and to inform committee recommendations.
Through our parliamentary engagement we have sought to promote the messages behind our campaigns on fair funding, social care, Brexit and devolution, improving mental health services, building new homes, changing children’s lives, and devolving employment and skills support.
These are the things councils have told us are most important to them and their residents. Our regular polling of parliamentarians shows strong support for the campaigns we run on behalf of local government. This is demonstrated by the fact that, of those polled in November 2017, 86 per cent of MPs and 89 per cent of Peers agreed with us that councils should have more financial powers and freedoms; and 84 per cent of MPs and 81 per cent of Peers agreed that additional funding should go to councils’ social care budgets to tackle the funding crisis.
Through this work we’ve helped achieve some notable wins for local government, including a recommendation from the influential cross-party Treasury Committee calling for the Housing Borrowing Cap to be lifted and a positive commitment, through our (Withdrawal) Bill, that local government will remain a key partner as new laws are bought forward.
- Published by:
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LGA
- Reference code:
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9.73