Briefings and responses

Research commissioned by the LGA reveals that the skills gap is worsening. By 2024 there will be more than four million too few high-skilled people to take up available jobs, two million too many with intermediate skills and more than six million too many low-skilled.

Councils want their residents to live in homes that are decent, safe and secure, and councils’ housing teams work hard to ensure homes are fit for purpose.

We are pleased that the Government has listened to the concerns raised by the LGA, as well as in the report of the joint select committee inquiry, and decided not to apply the Local Housing Allowance Rate to supported housing or wider social housing.

We are pleased to submit some headline views on the draft regulations which will enable the creation, via further statutory instruments, of locally- led New Town Development Corporations.

Almost no new money from central government has been included in the settlement, although the Government has increased the general council tax referendum limit from 1.99 per cent to 2.99 per cent for 2018/19 and 2019/20. 

The latest annual data on NHS spending in 2016/17 reveals there were 42,911 extractions of multiple teeth in under 18s in England at a cost of £36.2 million.

European Union laws impact many of the council services that affect people's day-to-day lives, from protecting people from unsafe food when they eat out to regulating how councils buy goods and services. The conversion of EU law will therefore have an impact on our most important public services.

The LGA welcomes the national infrastructure assessment.

Together with NHS England, local authorities and the LGA have undertaken a range of measures to improve preparedness for winter.

Local authorities continue to play an important role in managing the impacts of welfare reform in their communities, including the rollout of the Universal Credit (UC) Full Service. It is therefore crucial that councils’ concerns about the effect of the rollout of UC on residents and services are listened to by the Government.