It was great to catch up with colleagues and friends from across the local government family at the LGA’s annual conference.
However, I came away fearing that our biggest problems risk being left on the shelf in the long run-up to the General Election.
Local government is facing some daunting, if not existential, challenges: not least, local government funding, adult social care, and the workforce crisis.
There is a big risk that our challenges will be sidelined while all political parties address issues higher up the public agenda, as happened with Brexit, a hung parliament, the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, the cost-of-living crisis.
“Local government’s biggest problems risk being left on the shelf”
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove’s conference offering was all detail and no strategic vision, and the creation of the Office for Local Government (Oflog) isn’t the answer either – it’s a distraction and won’t solve a single problem we face.
Conversely, Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner offered warm words but no detail.
The offer of “true devolution” didn’t reassure me that Labour’s instinct for top-down control has been erased.
We saw that in the aftermath of the local elections, when Labour HQ quashed proposals for ‘progressive alliance’ administrations when it didn’t think it would be in its political interest.
It is our job to alert all political leaders nationally to the dire state of local government finances.
When it came to funding, conference was understandably pessimistic.
There was no optimism that local government will receive any meaningful increase in funding from this government, or the next.