On behalf of its membership, the cross-party LGA regularly submits to Government
consultations, briefs parliamentarians and responds to a wide range of parliamentary inquiries. Our recent
responses to government consultations and parliamentary briefings can be found here.
Councils want to be able to create great communities and support local involvement in designing, planning and creating great places for current and future generations.
The Department for Housing, Levelling Up and Communities held a consultation from 6 February to 5 April 2024 on its proposals to introduce a new, regulatory standard relating to the competence and conduct of social housing staff. This standard will require senior managers and executives to have, or be working towards, a relevant qualification.
The Department for Housing, Levelling Up and Communities held a consultation from 13 February to 9 April 2024 on proposed changes to various permitted development rights.
The Department for Housing, Levelling Up and Communities held a consultation from 30 January to 26 March 2024 on proposed changes to the social housing allocation system, and proposals relating to existing tenants living in social housing.
In principle, the LGA support the objective of the new proposed system of environmental assessment, to streamline the existing EU-derived processes and place an increased focus on delivering environmental ambitions in the UK. However the consultation does not contain the level of detail required to understand how Environmental Outcome Reports (EOR’s) will work in practice. We would urge Government to engage directly with local authorities when drafting the outcomes and ahead of public consultation, to ensure they are practical and can be monitored effectively.
The implementation of the proposals set out in this consultation and the Government’s broader planning reform agenda will require significant resource, skills and capacity at a local level to incorporate the changes into plan-preparation and decision-making. We welcome the Government’s commitment to developing a planning skills strategy but urge them to bring it forward swiftly.
We welcome the proposal to increase planning application fees. However, our modelling has shown that even if all application fees were uplifted by 35 per cent, the overall national shortfall for 2020/21 would have remained above £80 million. Councils must have the flexibility to set planning fees at local level to cover their costs relating to planning, which could include the employment of additional qualified planners. This would put councils in a stronger position to address the skills and capacity challenges in planning departments.
Around 50 per cent of heat network customers in the UK are living in social housing , including council housing. It is critical that councils’ experiences and concerns about heat networks are taken fully into account as regulation is developed to make sure it works for those it is trying to support.
LGA polling in June 2021 found that 73 per cent of respondents most trusted their local councils compared to 17 per cent that most trusted government when it came to local decision making. Based on the results of this polling, government should strongly consider forming a close working relationship with councils, via the LGA, to help facilitate consumers in making the right technical and economic choices.
Councils want to work as partners with central government to tackle climate change and are well-placed to do this as place-shapers, convenors of communities and partners, delivery agents, commissioners and owners of assets. Net zero can only be achieved with decarbonisation happening in every place across the country and this will require local leadership.