The 19th-century Birmingham pastor Robert Dale was one of the greatest proselytisers for the role of municipal government in Victorian England.
Dale made it his job to celebrate the virtues of public-spirited service in the interests of the community.
“If we are true to each other and true to the town,” he suggested in one 1881 sermon, “we may do deeds as great as those done by Pisa, Florence and Venice in their triumphant days.”
This brand of pioneering idealism inspired an era of civic progress and achievement that transformed England in the 20th century.
Today, as we begin 2023, those same virtues are kept alive by all of you in local government.
From social care to public health, to keeping our streets clean, councils oversee the stuff of everyday life. But it is the stuff that people care most about.
For a long time, your role in keeping the wheels on our public services turning was largely in the background.
But during the pandemic that role came right into the foreground, with millions of people seeing just how important local government is to our day-to-day lives.
Whether it was financial lifelines for high street businesses, emergency accommodation for rough sleepers or vital deliveries of food and medicine to those shielding from the virus, councils were on the frontline of the pandemic from start to finish.
And in 2022, once again, you stepped up and took on new, fresh responsibilities for helping support people fleeing war and hardship in Ukraine.
Your efforts to coordinate sponsors, matching those in need with those willing to help, has given fresh hope to thousands of Ukrainians who have started a new life on UK soil.
All of this vital support doesn’t happen by accident; it happens because of effective local leadership.
That is why we promised to make localism a centrepiece of our levelling up agenda; giving local leaders greater agency and helping communities restore pride to places bruised by deindustrialisation and jobs being sucked into the orbit of London.
I’m delighted to say we are delivering on that promise and more.
In 2022 alone, we agreed landmark devolution deals with Cornwall, Suffolk, Norfolk, the East Midlands, and York and North Yorkshire.
These deals go beyond funding; they set a coherent vision for where we want these regions to get to in the years and decades to come.
“Our councils will be more important than ever in helping people through this turbulent period”
Many of these deals also come with the future promise of a directly elected leader; an individual who will champion the needs of their local area in Westminster and beyond. You need look no further than Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, and Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen to see what can be achieved by inspiring local leadership.
Times are incredibly challenging for people, businesses and councils up and down the country. There are no easy answers and there is no guarantee things will get easier as we go into 2023.
One thing is certain though – our councils will be more important than ever in helping people through this turbulent period.
That is why the Chancellor and the Prime Minister backed local government in a big way at the Autumn Statement, with a funding package of almost £60 billion for the next financial year.
That money is going out the door and, just before Christmas, we published a two-year blueprint for local government finances to give you the clarity needed to start making vital decisions about budgets.
This finance settlement answers your calls for more certainty, more flexibility and more control.
As members of the LGA, you know better than anyone how unsettling a diet of uncertainty can be.
“Councils oversee the stuff of everyday life. But it is the stuff that people care most about”
So, after multiple one-year settlements, we’re correcting course with a multi-year blueprint that will help us get the best out of our public services.
Many of you told us it would be counterproductive to destabilise councils with adult social care reforms at a time when families are facing cost-of-living pressures, fuelled by Putin’s illegal war on Ukraine. And we have listened, with the rollout of adult social care charging reform now delayed to October 2025.
So, as we work towards a long-term solution, local adult and children’s social care will see a substantial injection of taxpayer subsidy, with around £2 billion of funding distributed to local authorities in 2023/24.
On top of this, we are also making a one-off guarantee that means every council will have, for the financial year ahead, at least a 3 per cent increase in the resources available to them before they make any decisions on council tax levels.
To tackle the cost of living, help people onto the housing ladder and level up communities in 2023, our cities, towns and villages need real resources, real knowledge and real imagination.
I look forward to working with you to make that a reality.