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“Councils are responsible for shaping their places and to do this effectively they need data about the activities and performance of the rest of the public sector (including central government) in their local authority area. Therefore, the new Local Authority Data Explorer should include a wider set of metrics in future and not just those about council performance. 

“Continued access to these EU wide databases is of vital importance and the Government and the European Union must ensure that it is maintained.”

Leisure centres could fall into a state of disrepair and even be forced to close without urgent new investment from government, councils warn today.

“Magistrates need new sentencing guidelines for fly-tipping, to make court action more worthwhile for councils and in turn, reduce fly-tipping in our communities.”

“Levelling up should be led by evidence of where crucial investment needs to go to, not based on costly competitive bids between areas."

Councils in England spent £142 million placing homeless households in bed and breakfasts in 2019/20, compared with £26.7 million in 2010/11 - a 430 per cent increase.

“From decarbonising building stock, reducing the number of car journeys and delivering clean energy projects, councils have influence over a third of emissions from their areas and have a pivotal role to play in addressing the climate emergency.”

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, councils have provided crucial local leadership and delivered services that have been absolutely essential in protecting lives and livelihoods, and keeping communities running.

Figures reveal only a small number of eligible youngsters are taking part in the Government’s National Citizen Service (NCS), despite hundreds of millions of pounds of government investment.

The LGA said councils want to work with the Government to tackle the housing shortage and ensure new housing meets the needs of communities. As part of this, it is calling on permitted development rules to be scrapped and local communities to be allowed to have a vital say on new developments in their area.