Local Government Conference 25

As we recover from the excitement of Liverpool and the LGA Conference last week, it’s time to reflect on the themes we saw emerging across the three days of discussion, networking and an ever increasing step count!

Overall, I would have liked to see more focus on rural local authorities on the big stage and in the strategic discussions.  There are particular challenges associated with delivering services to sparsely populated areas and best practice and experiences should be considered and highlighted.

With the Government setting a target of 1.5 million homes this Parliament, housing was a constant theme throughout the sessions I attended, starting with the plenary on Housing Reimagined where we saw one of our member authorities, East Riding of Yorkshire Council with their Leader Cllr Anne Handley take the stage.

A novel workshop, where we sat around 3 ‘campfires’ to discuss building climate resilience in people and places also featured another of our member authorities, Cornwall Council.  The CX, Kate Kennally shared their work on a county wide risk assessment of climate change, and the resulting Climate Change DPD enabling them to consider the impact of the changing environment on housing and local infrastructure. She shared for example how Looe is one of the most flooded towns in the country, but struggles to hit criteria for support due to its small size.

We heard of the opportunity and solutions that technology can enable, with Tewkesbury Council, sharing their transformation programme and the way they are embedding technology in shaping service delivery to deliver improvements for customers. 

On the other hand, we heard of how we need to design services to also meet the needs of our most vulnerable residents and how those on low incomes, older people and those with health conditions can struggle to access technology and may be locked out of access to services.  This can also affect those in rural areas with poor broadband or mobile telephone service.

Finally, the third big theme for me was Finance, and councils having the resources they needed to meet the challenges they face.  A lively session on Local Government Funding Reform which was standing room only, highlighted the differences in funding for rural and urban councils, with the drive towards moving funding to areas with high deprivation leaving rural with smaller, pockets of deprivation behind.

Simon Kaye of Re:State called for radical solutions, stating that we would never have imagined a year ago, that we would be implementing a new tier of regional governance, whilst reorganising local government, at the same time as conducting a review of how councils are funded, and delivering 1.5million homes, so maybe we should be more radical in how we envisage the funding solutions across Government over the next few years?

Imagine how much we could save services like the NHS if Local Government were adequately funded to do more preventative public health work, and improved transport links could offer people more opportunity for employment and training.

The RSN hosted a private session for its member authorities and it was great to see so many of you in person, talking about the work we do, and Fair Funding 2.0 and the best ways to gather evidence on the costs of rurality.

There were countless other sessions, and conversations over coffee, and demonstrations of new products in the Exhibition Zone designed to make things run smoother for Local Government. 

But for me, the overall conference had the air of us teetering on the edge, almost as though we are on the precipice of a new way of delivering services, with reorganised structures and the transfer of power and funds from Westminster.  There was trepidation, about how all of this will play out, and the capacity of those in Local Government to simultaneously manage all of this with at times limited funds, whilst still delivering the excellent day to day services their residents expect.

For rural councils, who are facing this challenge head on, there are lessons to be learnt from others who have trodden the path before them.  It will not be easy, the focus on funding deprivation means that councils who face the additional costs of delivering services to sparsely populated rural areas may struggle.  The question isn’t whether Local Government can deliver a new way of working— it’s whether it will finally be empowered and funded to.