Briefings and responses

The LGA support the Government’s ambition to protect consumers from unfair pricing by enabling an extension of the price cap beyond 2023

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.

While councils have a statutory duty to ensure there is a school place for every child, they are currently not able to direct academies to expand school places or admit individual pupils. We are seeking a commitment from Government redress this discrepancy between councils’ duties and powers as soon as reasonably possible, by providing councils with sufficient backstop powers to direct academies to expand school places and admit individual pupils, within six months of the Act passing.

Councils have demonstrated throughout the pandemic that they are uniquely placed to respond to local needs and reach their most vulnerable residents.

There is no hard evidence to support the argument that removing the flexibility for councils to charge will reduce the amount of fly-tipped waste.

The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill acts upon long running asks from councils and the LGA for further devolution in England.

According to a study by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, an estimated 1.5 million households across the UK will struggle to pay food and energy bills over the next year due to rising prices and higher taxes.

In our response to the original consultation we raised serious concerns that the proposals could have unintended consequences, for example affecting councils’ ability to invest in infrastructure and housing via wholly owned companies and have serious impacts on some councils’ revenue budgets.

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.

We are concerned that the wording of the Bill will require the public sector to spend time and money seeking market solutions for goods and services which can currently be delivered effectively by collaborative arrangements within the public sector.