Briefings and responses

The LGA welcomes the opportunity to comment on amendments to the regulation of POPs and the impact this could have on services that are highly valued by residents.

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.

The Government’s Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan and consultation sets out its approach to stamping out anti-social behaviour. Councils look forward to seeing more details of how the action plan will work in practice, as well as how the plan will  be funded. The LGA will work closely with the Government given the plan’s commitments to fund more uniformed local authority wardens and to explore funding models with PCCs and councils.

While we welcome the measures in the Bill, we have significant concerns about the capacity of councils’ housing teams to undertake all of the new responsibilities that are proposed. It will be vital for Government to fully fund the measures for them to be effective.

The Non-Domestic Rating Bill implements a number of changes to the system of non-domestic rates (known as business rates) in England and Wales.

The Local Government Association (LGA) supports the overall aims of the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which makes provisions for the regulation by Ofcom of certain internet services.

In order to tackle the national housing shortage, councils need to be empowered to build more affordable, good quality homes at scale, and fast, where these are locally needed.

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

The Local Government Association (LGA) is here to support, promote and improve local government. We will fight local government's corner and support councils through challenging times by making the case for greater devolution, helping councils tackle their challenges and assisting them to deliver better value for money services. This response has been agreed by Lead Members of the LGA Resources Board.