As you read this, hundreds of Independent, Green, Plaid Cymru and smaller party candidates are out and about in their communities and working hard online, organised and determined to focus on getting the very best for their local residents.
It can’t be easy being the Chancellor when the Office for Budget Responsibility states that British households are about to suffer “the biggest fall in living standards since records began”.
At the time of writing this article, we are in the fifth week of the war in Ukraine. Like everyone else, I have been shocked by the terrible scenes that we are witnessing on a daily basis while also being humbled by the resistance and acts of heroism of the Ukrainian people.
A key part of my platform to become Leader of the LGA’s Liberal Democrat Group was about raising the profile of local government in my party, and the successes of our councillors and councils in the wider local government world.
With the arrival of the first Ukrainian families to their sponsors in Britain, I know you are preparing to help those sharing their homes and those who are arriving having escaped from this terrible war.
With the publication of ‘Levelling up the UK’ and its 12 quantifiable ‘missions’, which are to be achieved by 2030, we can now fully explain to the communities and people that we represent exactly what this agenda means for them.
In April, most families will be facing a perfect storm of soaring energy prices, rising inflation, and the extra burden of Conservative hikes to both National Insurance and council tax. Many will struggle to pay the bills – and Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s thin package of support simply does not go far enough for most.
Water companies pumped polluting and harmful raw sewage into water sources more than 400,000 times in 2020, according to Environment Agency data.
The levelling up white paper has landed, heralding that bigger local government bodies, with power siphoned to the few, are better.
I am writing this comment piece in the week that the Government has announced the ending of all restrictions that were introduced to combat the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.