As the local government train struggles on, mounting issues threaten to derail it all

As I write this blog, heading southbound on the train back to London, I am reflecting on the time I spent at this year’s LGA conference in Liverpool.

For those unaware of this event – as my fellow “table buddy” opposite me was when I began making conversation on the train a few minutes ago – the LGA brings together councillors from all parties at the borough, district, county and combined authority levels. It’s the key time in the year for those who are passionate about improving their area to network, share best practice and discuss ideas – the Glastonbury of local government, the keen ones might say.  

Whilst it would be easy to claim that the conference unearthed a series of new policy ideas that would help to address the fundamental challenges that every council is facing, the truth is that the answers remain just as elusive as they did this time 12 months ago – on the very same day, in fact, that voters went to the polls and elected a Labour government.

The agenda for this year’s conference could have been written when Rishi Sunak was Prime Minister, albeit with the issues even more pronounced today – funding pressures and uncertainties in local government are still at breaking point and the department is set to experience further cuts as a result of the recent spending review; the increase in demand for SEN provision remains unsustainable for county and unitary councils, with an exponential rise in children with an Education, Health and Care Plan that threatens to consume more than 70% of their annual budgets; and the need for an affordable place to live continues to be out of reach for millions of people, with a growing housing waiting list, an ageing population and a generation of people who have been priced out of their area. Collectively, London boroughs alone spend £4 million a day on temporary accommodation – a staggering statistic that I scribbled down during one of the many panel discussions. 

We have seen in Parliament this week how quickly government policy can become nothing more than a post it note on a civil servant’s desk, with Keir Starmer increasingly vulnerable to the whims and wishes of his backbench MPs, with every U-turn and compromise. The one consistent message, however, is on housing, where the rhetoric from Downing Street has been both clear and unwavering, and shared by almost all of the Labour councillors in attendance. Even in this area, though, where the change in tone and policy since the General Election has undoubtedly led to an avalanche of planning applications being submitted, there now seems to be a confidence at a local level – as opposed to what was once a healthy dose of uncertainty – that 1.5 million homes will not be delivered. 

Why is almost every councillor certain that the government will fail? Its not because Labour are not committed to meeting their target; instead, its because of the wider realities that councillors were confronted with during various panel discussions. In one event councillors heard from CALA Homes, for example, about the many months taken (often extended to years) to get Section 106 or S278 agreements signed, that is preventing spades from going into the ground. In another room, they heard from Clarion Housing Group about the chronic skills shortage that is preventing work from starting. Want to know the average age of a bricklayer in the UK? 62.

And then of course, there is the small matter of local government re-organisation – a huge undertaking for officers in local government which threatens to distract or derail the ability of councils to get on with anything, let alone the essential job of progressing local plans (not to be confused, of course, with strategic development strategies). Councillors who went to the SDS briefing were more perplexed than they were when they entered the room.

Perhaps of greatest value to those who came to this conference was the shared understanding that we are, as one Prime Minister once said, “All in this together” – bound together across the political divide by the systemic issues that continue to go unsolved. We wait to see what progress is made and how the local government train can remain on track. Next stop – the autumn budget!