Building Healthier Communities: The Case for Investing in Public Health
Explore how targeted, community-based public health strategies can improve lives, reduce NHS pressure, and deliver cost savings for local authorities.
Voter ID prevented 16,000 people from voting
09/09/2024 Almost everyone who attended a polling station in the last election was able to vote, but 16,000 people were turned away and others discouraged, report finds. |
‘Spreadsheet issue’ led to 6.5k vote election declaration error
19/07/2024 A ‘spreadsheet issue’ led to over 6,550 votes being excluded from the declaration of the election result in the Putney constituency at the general election. |
Council housing landlords warn of £2.2bn ‘black hole’
11/07/2024 Twenty of England’s largest local authority landlords have warned council housing finances are ‘unsustainable’ with housing budgets facing a £2bn ‘black hole’. |
PM appoints former Camden Council leader
10/07/2024 Former Camden Council leader Georgia Gould has been appointed as a parliamentary secretary in the Cabinet Office. |
New MP to resign as council leader
10/07/2024 Newly elected MP Vikki Slade will stand down as leader of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. |
Badenoch takes shadow communities role
09/07/2024 Kemi Badenoch has been named shadow communities secretary by opposition leader Rishi Sunak. |
Council offers to brief Farage on SEND pressures
09/07/2024 Essex CC has offered to brief Nigel Farage MP on special educational needs and disabilities issues after the Reform UK leader criticised the council. |
Rayner: Labour ready to ‘transfer power out of Whitehall’
09/07/2024 Deputy PM Angela Rayner is set to tell regional mayors that Labour is ready to ‘transfer power out of Whitehall’ through a major programme of devolution. |
Department ditches 'levelling up' moniker
08/07/2024 PM Keir Starmer has ditched Whitehall’s 'levelling up' department and re-named it with immediate effect – signalling an end to the controversial brand. |
NewGov: Think local Labour
08/07/2024 Jonathan Owen, chief executive of the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), discusses what parish and town councils want from the new government. |
Reeves: Labour set to bring back housebuilding targets
08/07/2024 Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to announce today that she will bring back compulsory housebuilding targets. |
McMahon and Pennycook announced as ministers
08/07/2024 Former Oldham MBC leader Jim McMahon has been appointed as a minister in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. |
Transforming Local Government: A Strategic Guide for Labour
05/07/2024 The new Labour Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has his work cut out. This is particularly the case where local government is concerned. |
Rayner named levelling up secretary
05/07/2024 Angela Rayner has been named secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities. |
Badenoch accuses council of ‘potentially’ disenfranchising voters
05/07/2024 Outgoing business secretary Kemi Badenoch accused Uttlesford District Council of ‘potentially’ disenfranchising thousands of postal voters. |
Councillors celebrate General Election success
05/07/2024 A string of high-profile figures from the local government sector are celebrating victory in the General Election. |
Leaders call on Labour to act on social care
05/07/2024 Local government leaders have called on Labour to act to save social care following its thumping General Election victory. |
DLUHC team wipeout in Labour landslide
05/07/2024 The Conservative Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) team has faced a near wipe out in Labour’s election landslide. |
General Election: ‘Room for improvement’, says commission
05/07/2024 Polling day ‘ran smoothly’ but there is ‘room to improve the experience for some’, according to the independent body which oversees elections. |
LGPS quizzed in Labour economic growth push
04/07/2024 Labour has been asking local government pensions schemes their views on greater ‘investment into the UK’ as they look to drive growth, consultant says. |
Fresh calls for fiscal devo
04/07/2024 Backers of fiscal devolution have urged the government elected today to reconsider the policy despite their lobbying failing to get it mentioned in the manifestos. |
Scrap council tax referendum limits, says DCN
03/07/2024 District councils should have the powers to increase council tax referendum limits to at least 10% as a first step to scrapping them, DCN says. |
Councils at loggerheads with Royal Mail over postal vote delays
03/07/2024 Councils are at loggerheads with Royal Mail over responsibility for delays in delivering postal votes ahead of the General Election. |
Call for chief to resign over postal vote error
02/07/2024 The chief executive of Uttlesford DC is facing a call to resign following delays to the delivery of postal votes. |
NextGov: Resolving the housing crisis
28/06/2024 The Home Builders Federation’s (HBF) policy and external affairs manager, Laura Markus, discusses what the next government should do to tackle the housing crisis. |
Councillor quits Labour over Starmer’s Bangladesh comment
28/06/2024 A Tower Hamlets councillor has left the Labour Party over a reference Keir Starmer made to Bangladesh in relation to illegal immigration. |
Postal vote pressures threaten 'overload'
28/06/2024 A surge of demand for postal votes is threatening to leave people unable to take part in the General Election. |
All change
27/06/2024 Cheshire West and Chester leader Louise Gittins has emerged as the frontrunner to be the next chair of the Local Government Association, The MJ understands. |
Labour could bring in automatic voter registration
27/06/2024 It has been reported that Labour plans to introduce automatic voter registration (AVR) if elected next week. |
Labour will need to back up strategic planning 'with teeth'
27/06/2024 Labour’s proposed push for a return to strategic planning will need to be ‘backed up with teeth’, an expert has suggested. |
NextGov: What rural councils want from the next government
26/06/2024 The chief executive of the Rural Services Network (RSN), Kerry Booth, sets out rural councils' key asks of the next government. |
Party leaders urged to act on migrant homelessness
25/06/2024 More than 100 homelessness and migrants’ rights organisations have called on the next government to stop the asylum system ‘driving people needlessly’ into destitution. |
‘Talk more’ about social care, party leaders told
21/06/2024 Political parties must do more to acknowledge the value of adult social care in the run up to the General Election, sector leaders have argued. |
Service cuts likely, think-tank warns
21/06/2024 Councils could be forced to cut back service provision if cost and demand pressures continue to grow, researchers have warned. |
NextGov: What the next government should do for public EV charging
20/06/2024 Asif Ghafoor, CEO of Be.EV, looks at what the next government should do to boost the roll-out of EV charge points. |
Warnings over Labour devolution drive
20/06/2024 A Labour drive to fill in the devolution map will take time and energy away from deepening devolution in areas that have already secured deals, expert warns. |
Lib Dem £300m pothole pledge ‘won’t scratch the surface’
20/06/2024 The Liberal Democrats have committed to spending £300m over the next Parliament to fill 1.2 million potholes a year. |
Labour plan to reduce delayed discharges
20/06/2024 Labour is reportedly planning to buy thousands of beds in care homes in an effort to reduce the problem of delayed discharges in hospitals. |
Sir Keir: We need to review voter ID rules
19/06/2024 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has suggested his party would review the policy of mandatory voter ID if elected to govern. |
Labour pledges leave questions over council funding
18/06/2024 Questions hang over the future of local government finance in the event of a Labour victory in next month’s General Election. |
NextGov: Scrapping the two-child benefit cap
17/06/2024 Rachel Walters, ECPC, and Amanda Bailey, NECPC, argue the next government should scrap the two-child limit on benefit payments. |
Planning London under Labour
17/06/2024 Grant Leggett, Executive Director and Head of Boyer’s London planning team, looks at the impact of a future Labour government on planning in London. |
UNISON: To whoever forms the next government…
14/06/2024 Christina McAnea, general secretary of UNISON, tells LocalGov.co.uk what the sector’s biggest union hopes to see from the next government. |
Greens to push for council tax revaluation
14/06/2024 Elected Greens will push for a re-evaluation of council tax bands to ‘reflect big changes in value’ since the 1990s, the party has pledged in its manifesto. |
Labour manifesto pledges Right to Buy curbs
13/06/2024 Labour has opened the door to reining in Right to Buy in its manifesto, published today. |
Labour pledges to fix one million potholes
12/06/2024 One million potholes a year will be fixed if Labour are elected on 4 July, the shadow transport secretary says. |
More than a million apply for vote
11/06/2024 Council elections teams are facing a workload surge as they race to register voters in time for the General Election. |
Conservatives pledge business rates retention expansion
11/06/2024 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to create business rates retention zones as he launched the Conservatives’ General Election manifesto today. |
NextGov: Revitalising local democracy
10/06/2024 Dr Jess Garland, director of Research and Policy for the Electoral Reform Society, looks at what the next government should do to revitalise local democracy. |
Labour pledges to ‘fix our broken housing market’
07/06/2024 Labour would bring back council house-building targets and hire new officers to deal with the backlog of applications if elected, deputy leader says. |
‘Existential crisis’ for councils as £6bn funding gap revealed
06/06/2024 A new Local Government White Paper has uncovered a £6.2bn funding gap facing councils in England over the next two years. |
General Election: Nearly 2m voters do not have suitable ID
06/06/2024 Around 4% of registered voters – more than 1.9m people – do not yet have a suitable photo ID that will allow them to vote in the general election. |
Hunt rules out ‘expensive’ council tax revaluation
06/06/2024 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has pledged that if elected a Conservative government would not undertake a council tax revaluation. |
NextGov: What the next government should do for children’s services
05/06/2024 Andy Smith, president of the ADCS, looks at what the priorities for the next government should be when it comes to children’s services. |
EXCLUSIVE: LGA starts to shift on standards
04/06/2024 Senior Local Government Association (LGA) figures expect the organisation’s reluctance to beefing up the standards regime to shift after the General Election. |
Lib Dems pledge free personal care for elderly and disabled
04/06/2024 The Liberal Democrats have pledged to make free personal care available at home for older or disabled people if they win the election. |
Council chiefs call for 10-year sexual health strategy
04/06/2024 Council leaders have called on the next Government to launch a 10-year sexual health strategy after new figures reveal rise in sexually transmitted infections. |
Growth at heart of LGA White Paper
03/06/2024 The Local Government Association (LGA) has called for powers and funding so that councils can take a leading role in driving inclusive growth. |
Hoare: We still want productivity plans
30/05/2024 Local government minister Simon Hoare has insisted he still wants councils to draw up unpopular productivity plans despite the election, The MJ understands. |
Council bosses call on next government to deliver ‘fundamental reform’
30/05/2024 Local services could reach ‘breaking point’ if the next government fails to deliver long-term funding and ‘fundamental reform’, a cross-party group of council leaders has argued. |
Labour suspends councillor who backed Corbyn
28/05/2024 The Labour Party has suspended an Islington councillor who declared his support for Jeremy Corbyn in the upcoming General Election. |
National service threat to Shared Prosperity Fund
28/05/2024 Conservative proposals to create a national service scheme could spell the end of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). |
General Election brings raft of reforms
23/05/2024 Elections officers face a raft of reforms to implement as voters nationwide prepare to go to the polls in July. |
General Election: Public services must be ‘centre’ of party manifestos
22/05/2024 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced a general election at what local authority leaders have described as a ‘pivotal time’ for the country. |
Siân Berry quits London Assembly three days after re-election
08/05/2024 Green Party politician Siân Berry has stood down from the London Assembly just three days after she was re-elected. |
Blow to council hopes for cash boost
23/04/2024 The prospect of extra cash for councils has faded further with the latest public finance figures showing the UK borrowed more than expected last month. |
Oflog should be handed audit oversight, MPs told
16/04/2024 Oflog should be handed oversight of England’s broken audit regime – a role earmarked for the Financial Reporting Council - accounting experts have told MPs. |
Clark: Tories and Labour unwilling to address SEND crisis
15/04/2024 Labour and the Conservatives have been accused of an ‘unwillingness’ to confront the crisis in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services. |
Five million could be disenfranchised by voter ID, polling finds
11/04/2024 Five million voters could be disenfranchised by the Government’s new voter ID rules at the General Election, first-of-its-kind polling has suggested. |
'Business as usual' for Lancashire councillors despite resignations
02/04/2024 Councillors in Lancashire have insisted it will be ‘business as usual’ despite 20 resignations in protest at the leadership of the national Labour party. |
Voter ID legal challenge launched
19/02/2024 A legal challenge has been mounted against the Government over voter ID requirements for elections. |
Rayner floats three-year pay deal
14/02/2024 An incoming Labour Government could throw its weight behind a longer-term pay deal for the sector to avoid the embarrassment of strikes, well-placed sources have suggested. |
Minister shrugs off election concerns
06/12/2023 Fears that pressures on elections officials will leave them overwhelmed at the next election have been dismissed by local government minister Simon Hoare. |
Current climate making it ‘impossible’ for councils to carry on
15/11/2023 Soaring demand, rising pay bills and inflationary costs are making it ‘virtually impossible’ to keep councils going, a senior chief executive has said. |
Housing minister among casualties of Sunak reshuffle
13/11/2023 The UK will have its 16th housing minister in 12 years after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s sweeping reshuffle affected the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. |
Labour regeneration plans will fail 'without radical action'
31/10/2023 An incoming Labour government’s regeneration plans will fail without radical action to devolve financial decision-making, researchers have warned. |
Council leaders create roadmap for a Starmer government
26/09/2023 A plan for a future Labour administration to ‘reform public services and rebuild trust’ has been drawn out by local authority leaders. |
Bentley insists level two devolution 'best option' for county
21/09/2023 Essex CC’s Conservative leader Kevin Bentley has insisted that a level two devolution deal is the ‘best option’ for the county. |
Rayner takes levelling up role as Starmer shuffles his pack
04/09/2023 Labour leader Keir Starmer has appointed his deputy Angela Rayner as the party’s new shadow levelling up secretary. |
South East Councils to consider devolution of vehicle excise duty
01/09/2023 The devolution of vehicle excise duty (VED) will be among the options expected to be considered by a London Finance Commission-style investigation. |
Local government funding system has 'broken down'
15/08/2023 The funding system for local government has ‘broken down’ and what councils currently receive from Whitehall and council tax barely reflects need, a think-tank has warned. |
Fresh LGA drive to influence MPs over skills
07/08/2023 The Local Government Association has proposed to establish a skills and employment working group as it seeks to influence MPs ahead of the election. |
Risk of 'major electoral failure,' officers warn
26/06/2023 Pressure on council teams running elections will only be recognised in the event of a ‘major electoral failure,’ a new report has warned. |
Pension changes could ease recruitment pressure
21/03/2023 Changes to the pension rules could ease the pressure on senior recruitment in local government, sector figures have suggested. |
Devolution White Paper to be replaced by levelling up proposals
04/05/2021 A levelling up White Paper will replace the long-awaited policy document on devolution and local recovery. |
Jenrick hails 'biggest multi-billion pound spending increase in a decade'
20/12/2019 Local government secretary Robert Jenrick has confirmed what he describes as the ‘biggest multi-billion pound spending increase for councils in a decade’. |
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In a nutshell: What the election result means for local government
13/12/2019 With the Conservative party securing its biggest majority since the 1980s, what does this mean for local government? |
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Hundreds of Cardiff students 'unable to vote'
13/12/2019 Around 200 students in Cardiff were left unable to vote yesterday after failing to register correctly. |
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Software glitch means some people wrongly told they can vote
11/12/2019 Councils have been urgently checking their electoral registers after being told to install a last-minute software release. |
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Bed delays to hit 2.5m days since last election
04/12/2019 More than 2.5m bed days will have been lost in the NHS due to a lack of social care since the last General Election, new analysis has concluded. |
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Voters face 'stark choice' on public spending - IFS
29/11/2019 The choice could not be clearer on public spending plans by the main political parties according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. |
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Lib Dems unveil plans to tackle homelessness
28/11/2019 The Liberal Democrats have set out a raft of plans to end rough sleeping if they won the General Election. |
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'Huge' increase in voter registration
27/11/2019 The number of people registering to vote as increased by 31% compared to the 2017 general election, new figures reveal. |
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No parties would reduce child poverty, warns think tank
26/11/2019 None of the party manifestos would reduce levels of child poverty, new research from the Resolution Foundation has found. |
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Tories promise cash boost for infrastructure and skills
25/11/2019 A Conservative Government would deliver record investments in infrastructure, childcare and skills, according to the party’s manifesto. |
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Labour pledges to restore council spending to 2010 levels
21/11/2019 Council spending powers will be restored to 2010 levels over the next five years, if Labour wins the General Election. |
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Labour promises biggest council house building programme for decades
21/11/2019 Labour has pledged to create a 'housing revolution' with the biggest council house building programme since the Second World War. |
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Northants reorganisation stalled amid election
08/11/2019 Plans to reorganise cash-strapped Northamptonshire County Council have stalled amid the general election. |
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Cost of alternative polling stations to be funded by Whitehall
06/11/2019 Councils will be reimbursed for the cost of finding alternative polling stations in the upcoming General Election. |
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Getting creative to avoid voting problems
04/11/2019 The forthcoming general election comes at a busy time of year amid warnings of serious strains on the voting system. But the worries may be exaggerated, Mark Whitehead learned. |
