Briefings and responses

The LGA has responded to the Government’s consultation on disqualification criteria for elected councillors and mayors.

Rather than responding to every question in the consultation, our response focuses primarily on concerns about the potential impact of the tax on affordable housing delivery and where the proposed ‘collection agent’ role should sit.

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.

Any new requirements arising from implementation of the new Act and outlined in the guidance will be new burdens for councils and will need to be funded accordingly. This could include training costs.

The LGA supports the further roll out of lane rental to any authority that wishes to make use of the powers. We would also support more options being considered developing the Government’s proposed super permits. 

The Government is consulting on the policy design for a new tax that is proposed for the UK residential property development sector. The residential property developer tax (RPDT) will be introduced in 2022 and seek to raise at least £2 billion over a decade.

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

The LGA has direct experience of the failure of the construction product testing regime in two respects: the testing of cladding systems and the testing of fire doors.

We call for opportunities for local government to help shape the work of Oflog. We are concerned that Oflog’s Data Explorer provides poor value for money. There is a need to ensure that Oflog’s ‘early warning conversations’ and peer reviews do not duplicate the LGA’s work. Oflog is not an independent body: this has implications for public trust in its work.

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.