Briefings and responses

Councils are committed to working with Government and developers to meet the Government’s aspirations of 300,000 new homes per year, with land for more than 2.6 million homes allocated in Local Plans.

The Local Government Association (LGA) supports the overall aims of the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which makes provisions for Ofcom to regulate certain internet services. The regulation proposed in this Bill is aimed at ensuring platforms have systems and processes in place to deal with illegal and harmful content and their associated risk. 

The LGA's submitted written evidence to the Government review of integrated care systems, led by the Right Hon Patricia Hewitt.

We are pleased that the Government has proposed to speed up the process and make good on its commitment to offer all of England the opportunity to benefit from a devolution deal by 2030.

The LGA broadly welcomes the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Bill, which would make provision about the regulation of supported exempt accommodation; make provision about local authority oversight of, and enforcement powers relating to, the provision of supported exempt accommodation; and for connected purposes.

From Autumn 2021 there has been a concerning increase in reports of spiking, including a new trend of allegations of substances being administered by needles rather than through drinks. Councils take these allegations extremely seriously and have worked with the police and other partners to respond swiftly to these reports.

Following the publication of the Green Paper, Transforming Public Procurement, we have been engaging with Government to help them to understand the way that councils procure goods, works and services.

This briefing aims to provide useful advice for any councils becoming unitary authorities and shares an overview of lessons learnt from a number of councils who have brought regulatory services together during this process.

Challenges caused by the systematic underfunding of early years provision are being exacerbated by the rising cost of living and inflationary pressures. This is negatively impacting the financial viability of early years providers, the quality and access of childcare provision, and the availability of good support for children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND).

This briefing covers the provisional local government finance settlement for 2023/24 which was announced on 19 December 2022.