Briefings and responses

The Autumn Budget has taken a step forward by lifting the housing borrowing cap for some councils. We welcome this announcement, but it does not go far enough.

The local government finance settlement is the annual determination of funding to local government from central government. This briefing covers the consultation on the local government finance settlement for 2018/19. We expect the final 2018/19 settlement to be laid before the House of Commons, for its approval, in February 2018.

The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill will convert the entire body of EU law into UK law, with the intention of allowing businesses to continue operating and providing fairness to individuals, knowing the rules have not changed when the UK leaves the EU. This legal certainty must be given to councils too.

The LGA welcomed the appointment of a House of Lords Select Committee to investigate the effectiveness of the Licensing Act 2003 and the insight that the Committee’s work has provided in a number of areas.

Councils are working hard to deliver the right kind of homes, and are currently approving nine out of ten planning permissions.

The Local Government Association welcomes the helpful insight provided by the Dame Louise Casey review into opportunity and integration.

The Children’s Commissioner’s report highlights the complexity of issues facing young people and their families.

This briefing sets out those issues in the report which are of most importance to local government. It also details the work that the LGA will now undertake to ensure that councils’ needs are addressed during the next stage of the negotiations.

Suicide prevention is a priority for local government. On average 13 people in England take their lives every day, with three quarters of these suicide victims being male. Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50 as well as the leading cause of death in young people.

The Department for Education’s most recent figures show there were 72,670 children in care in England on 31 March 2017. Of these, 53,420 were cared for in a foster placement, including 8,830 placed with family or friends. 2,520 were placed for adoption, representing 3 per cent of all looked-after children.