In my final column for first as Leader of the LGA’s Conservative Group, I want to put on record my thanks to all Conservative councillors across the country for the tremendous hard work you put into your communities.
Conservative councils have always been the best-managed councils and I look forward to playing my part in the Conservative local government family in the future.
I wish my successor all the best as they start their tenure in July.
Over the course of my term as group leader, it has become my firm view that local
authorities need more flexibility and freedom over their finances.
In particular, I now believe that government should actively consider allowing local authorities to set planning and licensing fees internally, based on the needs of respective communities.
“Local authorities need more flexibility and freedom over their finances”
In the case of planning, it has become acutely clear to me that workforce retention is becoming an issue within local planning departments as we seek to compete with our friends in the private sector.
If government provided us with the powers to set planning fees internally, we could recruit more planning officers and speed up the process of dealing with applications – thus, supporting government in its ambition to build more homes in the right places.
Inevitably, local government should be on the same level as national government.
Councillors should be able to set fees according to need, and, in the same way as MPs, they will be held accountable by the public through the ballot box.