lga chairman

It is a great honour to be the new Chairman of the LGA, and I enjoyed meeting many of you at our annual conference in Bournemouth in early July.

I am looking forward to seeing many of you in Bournemouth from 2-4 July, at the LGA’s annual conference.

This time last year, I was writing about the appointment of James Brokenshire as Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary, and his plans to consult on banning combustible materials on high-rise buildings.

It is a huge privilege and honour to be elected by our residents to represent them on their local councils, and to try to make a difference to them and the areas in which we live.

Last year, the Government finally accepted the LGA’s long-standing call to scrap the housing borrowing cap.

While we await the timetable for the 2019 Spending Review, the LGA has already launched its campaign for more funding for councils.

I had the great pleasure of speaking at the LGA’s annual finance conference in January – alongside two Cabinet ministers, a shadow secretary of state and two senior civil servants, as well as colleagues from across local government.

The LGA has been working hard to raise concerns about the huge financial pressures on councils and schools arising from the growing demand for support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

I want to thank you and your colleagues, our partners in the voluntary and care sector, and our residents, for the incredible response to the LGA’s adult social care green paper.