On behalf of its membership, the cross-party LGA regularly submits to Government
consultations, briefs parliamentarians and responds to a wide range of parliamentary inquiries. Our recent
responses to government consultations and parliamentary briefings can be found here.
The LGA supports the overall aims of the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which makes provisions for the regulation by Ofcom of certain internet services. The regulation proposed in this Bill is aimed at ensuring platforms have systems and processes in place to deal with illegal and harmful content and their associated risk, particularly to children and young people. The Bill primarily does this by introducing duties of care to some user-to-user services (e.g. social media sites) and search engines. The Bill also imposes duties on such providers in relation to the protection of users’ rights to freedom of expression and privacy.
Reducing in-work poverty requires significant work to address the wider determinants of low income and barriers to work, such as health. Government should foster an enabling environment by tackling barriers such as lack of quality housing, appropriate infrastructure, and green spaces to improve quality of life.
The Bill seeks to remove the possibility for public bodies, including councils, to campaign against, boycott, seek divestment from, or sanction a particular territory internationally, unless endorsed by the Government’s own foreign policy
We strongly support a preventative, assets-based approach to health, which recognises that the essential components of good health go far beyond NHS treatment and care. An assets-based approach supports repeople to make healthy choices and enables them to live healthy, independent and productive lives. If they have health and social care needs, our approach is to provide community-based and person-centred care and support which enables them to live independently and live their lives as they choose.
Smoking is the single largest cause of preventable death and the biggest cause of cancer worldwide. As well as impacting upon health, smoking places a significant burden on the public purse, to the tune of £12.6 billion each year.
To improve the lives of the armed forces community across the whole country, councils want to work closely with the Government before, during and after the transition of service personnel into civilian life.
Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of ill health and mortality in England. Councillors and officers recognise the harm that smoking inflicts on their communities and the importance of continuing to drive down smoking prevalence.
The LGA, along with 29 other bodies across the sector, have written to government to urge them not to introduce the proposed Infrastructure Levy (IL). We have significant concerns that the proposed IL will result in fewer, not more, affordable homes delivered, will expose councils to excessive levels of financial risks, and be increasingly burdensome and complex for local authorities to implement and manage. The signatories propose that retention and improvement of the current developer contribution system is the most appropriate solution.