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.
Working in partnership with Government, local government can help deliver much needed high-quality housing to achieve the Government’s goal of 300,000 new homes per year.
We are calling on Government to do more to rapidly build more genuinely affordable homes to help families struggling to meet housing costs, provide homes to rent, reduce homelessness and tackle the housing waiting lists many councils have.
Councils are extremely disappointed that the Government has removed Lords amendment 82, which would have enabled local planning authorities to set fees for planning applications at a level that covers the cost of processing them.
Private rents have reached record highs, with private rents rising an average of five per cent in the 12 months up to May 2023 and more than 25 percent since the start of the pandemic. Rising housing costs are a significant factor in driving financial hardship and homelessness.
The LGA, along with 29 other bodies across the sector, have written to government to urge them not to introduce the proposed Infrastructure Levy (IL). We have significant concerns that the proposed IL will result in fewer, not more, affordable homes delivered, will expose councils to excessive levels of financial risks, and be increasingly burdensome and complex for local authorities to implement and manage. The signatories propose that retention and improvement of the current developer contribution system is the most appropriate solution.
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.
This briefing outlines LGA policy on council tax and council tax reform and also highlights work commissioned by the LGA on council tax and alternative forms of funding for local government.
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.
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.