Liaison Committee: Work of the Prime Minister

• Council funding: It is disappointing that the Government has not announced measures to adequately fund the local services people rely on every day. Councils continue to transform services but, given that core spending power in 2024/25 has been cut by 23.3 per cent in real terms compared to 2010/11, it is unsustainable to expect them to keep doing more for less.
• Council funding: 2024 saw the sixth one-year settlement in a row for councils. Keeping councils on a financial drip feed has led to the steady weakening of local services. Councils need certainty with multi-year settlements to prevent this ongoing decline and to also ensure key national Government policies can be achieved.
• Adult social care: It is disappointing and concerning that the recent Spring Budget provided no new investment for adult social care. Waiting lists for care assessments or the provision of support/direct payments or care plan reviews remain stubbornly high. The absence of new funding, and the near total absence of any commentary on adult social care, might suggest the Government considers that pressures are resolved, and the sector has what it needs. This is patently not the case. The extra government funding for the Social Care Grant for 2024/25, including £500 million announced in February 2024 between the provisional and final local government finance settlements, is positive, but significant challenges remain going into 2024/25 and beyond.
• Temporary accommodation: The Spring Budget provided no support to address the spiralling cost of temporary accommodation. Councils are spending more than £1.74 billion supporting 109,000 households in temporary accommodation, both the highest figures since records began. The severe shortage of social housing means councils are forced to pay to house people in private temporary accommodation. The Government must urgently implement our six-point plan to give councils the powers they need.
• Household Support Fund (HSF): We were pleased the Chancellor extended the HSF in his Spring Budget, which to date has helped millions of households facing hardship. However, it was disappointing that councils had to wait until the very last minute for an extension, and that it is only for a short period. Three-quarters of councils expect hardship to increase further in their area over the next 12 months. The Government should use the next six months to agree a more sustainable successor to the HSF. Councils need certainty and consistent funding to efficiently maintain the staff, services and networks that help our most vulnerable residents. Many councils have already had to close services, reduce or remove grants to their partners and make redundancies due to the uncertainty. Councils could find themselves in this position yet again in September.
• Civility in public life: Many politicians face abuse, online and offline, and the LGA’s Debate Not Hate campaign aims to raise public awareness of the role of councillors in their communities, encourage healthy debate and improve the support for local politicians facing abuse and intimidation. Debate Not Hate research shows that there is a perception that women and other underrepresented groups are more likely to receive higher volumes of personalised and discriminatory abuse than others. The increasing level of abuse and intimidation is undermining local democracy and preventing elected members from representing the communities they serve. To reduce the vulnerability of councillors, the Localism Act 2011 should be amended to move towards the presumption that councillors’ home addresses are not shared on the public register of interests, as with members of parliament.
• School attendance: The LGA supports the introduction of a register of children who are out of school to improve data and visibility of these children, combined with powers for councils to meet face-to-face with children and their families. There is an urgent need for a cross-government, child centred-strategy to tackle rising disadvantage and the wider factors that are contributing toward causing persistent absence and for children to miss out on school. This must include reforming the SEND system; expanding access to mental health support and youth services; connecting with hard-to-reach communities; and ensuring schools are resourced, supported and incentivised.

The LGA is the national voice of local government. We work with councils to support, promote and improve local government. We are a politically led, cross-party organisation that works on behalf of councils to ensure local government has a strong, credible voice with national government.