Briefings and responses

Local government is ready to work with the Government to achieve these objectives. However, the current proposals lack the detail that is needed for full debate and comment. This lack of detail means that there are wide-ranging concerns about how the proposals will work in practice.

A local, plan-led system is vital to ensure that councils and the communities they represent have a say over the way places develop.

Whilst we support an increased focus on design, we are concerned that because ‘beauty’ is subjective, striving for, or allowing ‘beautiful’ development to be fast-tracked may not lead to the quality homes and places communities want and need. Councils need tools that will empower them to create great quality homes and places and stop poor development, rather than supporting those deemed to be ‘beautiful’.

The LGA welcomes the Government’s second stage of proposals for non-domestic and domestic standards that will support achieving the UK’s commitment to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan is an important opportunity to recognise local government’s leadership role in improving the mental health and wellbeing of our communities.

Overall, the LGA welcomes this best practice guidance. It provides helpful clarity on some complex issues in taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) licensing and will be a useful resource for both licensing authorities and the taxi and PHV trade.

Local government as democratically elected leaders of place, also play a key role in stimulating local economies and want to ensure that employers have a supply of skilled workforce to meet the current and future business demands in local areas.

The LGA welcomes the publication of Government’s Net Zero Strategy. It is our view that the next stage of work should be a deliverable plan that will help to coordinate the actions of the multiple players that are essential in achieving decarbonisation.