Briefings and responses

The UK’s exit from the European Union (EU) is going to have a significant impact on local government, creating challenges that will need to be addressed, but also opportunities to do things differently.

Key summary points and briefings for local government on the Policing and Crime Bill.

The briefing covers the consultation on the local government finance settlement for 2017/18 and indicative settlements for 2018/19 and 2019/20.

On the 29 September 2016 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), published a consultation on how the legislation will be implemented in the UK. There are some proposals in the consultation which go far beyond the basic legislation and therefore should be seen as discretionary for the UK.

Councils in England currently look after 69,500 children who are unable to live with their birth parents, a figure that has increased by just under 2,500 over the past three years.

Since March (2016), the establishment of 44 Sustainability and Transformation Plans has continued apace, with each required to draft proposals to transform local health and care services.

Faced with increasing demand, reducing budgets, falling social housing and wide-ranging welfare reforms, it is clear that that there is no silver bullet and councils cannot tackle this challenge alone.

We estimate that local government faces an overall funding gap of £5.8 billion by 2019/20, taking into account future funding and the full range of pressures facing councils.

Local government shares the Government's ambition to increase housing supply. Councils want to play a lead role in building new homes and support measures that will enable councils to capture the value from increased land prices on land they acquire for development.

Councils want to end homelessness and are already doing everything they can within existing resources to prevent and tackle it, but there is no silver bullet and councils alone cannot tackle rising homelessness.