Briefings and responses

We welcome the proposal for businesses to provide more regular information to the VOA, as part of a move to more frequent valuations. This must be accompanied by measures to significantly reduce the backlog of appeals.

In order for the Bill to have real success in tackling domestic abuse and creating consistency of services, it must be underpinned by adequate, long term funding in key services including children’s services and housing.

The issue of relatively low pay in the social care sector is highlighted regularly and the settlement in the Spending Round provides resources to begin to address this challenge. In the long term the low pay needs to be addressed as part of the arrangements for the future funding of both adult and children’s social care.

Where Knife Crime Protection Order (KCPO) areas are introduced, it will be essential to ensure the new orders effectively tackle knife crime. These orders should not contribute to the unnecessary criminalisation of young people.

In February 2019 Defra set out proposals for the implementation of a new waste and resources strategy. The LGA consulted extensively with member councils on the proposals and responded to each of the consultations.

Arts Council England (ACE) plays a crucial role in funding and supporting cultural activity at a local level, including acting as the development agency for public libraries and museums. This consultation on ACE’s 10-year strategy for 2020-2030 offers a key opportunity for councils and ACE to collaborate on a joint vision for creative and culturally accessible communities.

The LGA welcomes this consultation and many of the recommendations in the Independent Review.

We are not commenting on any feature other than the use of the FSO in relation to multi-occupancy high-rise buildings. Our responses contained below.

Proposals for reform of the building safety regulatory system - July 2019. The fire at Grenfell Tower exposed systemic failures in the building regulation system. It is right that we seek to correct these failures, to prevent a fire like the one at Grenfell tower from ever occurring again.

The UK’s exit from the EU represents an opportunity to provide local areas with new ways to manage their economies. We have made the case for reforming the funding landscape to secure better outcomes and a key chance to deliver this priority is the design of the UKSPF.