I am still getting over the Liberal Democrats’ fantastic set of local election results from May.
We saw 12 new majority Lib Dem councils elected and kept control of 17 authorities. We also share the leadership in other cross-party coalitions and alliances.
In total, 75 councils in England and Wales have a Liberal Democrat leader or deputy leader.
While many gains were from the Conservatives, we also won against
Labour – for example, in Hull, Liverpool and Manchester.
Our commiserations to those who, despite working very hard, did not make it this time.
For example, the excellent Mayor Dave Hodgson did not win re-election in Bedford, missing out by just 145 votes.
“We will be there making the case for local autonomy and decision-making“
If the election had been held under the previous supplementary vote system that the Government recently abolished, Dave would likely still be in post.
We gained more than 400 councillors, bringing our UK total to just under 3,000 on principal authorities.
Our gains give us a stronger national voice inside the LGA and our highest profile for many years. We gain an extra LGA board chair and extra places on most LGA boards.
We’ll build a team so we can make a positive impact for residents and communities across the country.
Over the next two years, we will see a General Election and a likely change in government.
We will use our higher profile to push for causes important to our group, such as fixing our social care system, supporting local action on climate change, fighting for truly affordable housing, and pushing back against the increasing centralisation of power this government has pushed through.
Whether that is the forced merger of our police and fire services, the mistaken obsession that regional and combined authority mayors are the only way to devolve power, or the endless rounds of insisting councils compete against each other for ever-decreasing pots of money, we will be there making the case for local autonomy and decision-making.
In other words, government that is local rather than a delivery arm of Whitehall.