Chief executive’s bulletin (1)

NALC at Labour Party Conference

As I’m sure you will have already read and heard much about, the Labour Party held their annual conference in Liverpool this week. NALC’s chair, Cllr Keith Stevens, supported our head of policy and communications, Justin Griggs, to promote our sector to shadow ministers, councillors, journalists and a range of organisations. Speaking at numerous fringe events, shadow ministers started to put (slightly!) more flesh on the bones of their policy agenda for levelling up and what that might mean for communities and local government. This included a commitment to shift money and power to the local level, with specific policies including introducing three-year local government finance settlements, replacing business rates with a new business taxation system, expanding the right to buy community assets and land, and introducing a sovereign wealth fund. You can also read the shadow levelling up secretary, Lisa Nandy MP, speech to the conference here. We also teamed up with Labour Coast and Country to hold a ‘pop-up’ event bringing local councillors together, which provided a great opportunity to talk to them about our work and get their help promoting our issues within the Labour Party.

NALC at Conservative Party Conference

And this weekend, it’s the turn of the Conservative Party, who will be in Birmingham for their annual conference. Justin will be there supporting NALC’s vice president, Cllr Sue Baxter, so if you’re going to the conference and want to meet up with them, especially if you are a local councillor, please email justin.griggs@nalc.gov.uk.

Working between the tiers

I was pleased to join over 100 attendees at our ‘Working between the tiers’ online event on 28 September. We heard our brilliant speakers, Tony Blake, programme director at Shared Intelligence, and Philip Clifford, senior advisor at the Local Government Association (LGA), talk in-depth about the LGA’s report Local service delivery and place-shaping: A framework to support parish and town councils and provide insights into building more effective relationships. Discussions also covered how in the current climate, local councils could be best equipped to take on further assets and services from principal councils and address the financial issues that go with that. The dialogue was identified as being key, as “nothing will happen without positive dialogue, building trust is vital”. Other issues included engaging with different professions within principal councils, progress on devolution, the levelling up white paper and empowering local councils to do more. You can find out more about upcoming online events ‘Local councils and communication strategies’ and ‘Local councils and community outreach here.

LGBT+ councillors network on 6 October 2022

NALC’s National Network: LGBT+ Councillors holds its next online meeting next week on 6 October. The agenda includes feedback on June’s Pride Month and related events, civility and respect, cost of living crisis, network communications, future guest speakers and an open forum for councillors to provide mutual support and share learning and good practice. If you’d like to come along and haven’t yet joined the network, you can sign up here.

Rural Coalition letters to the government

With colleagues on the Rural Coalition, NALC has written to the new prime minister and the secretary of state for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to welcome them to their new roles, highlighting the challenges facing rural communities and businesses and setting out the coalition’s priorities. As well as focussing on the need to address the implications of the cost-of-living crisis in rural areas, the letters emphasise the importance of supporting social infrastructure – including local (parish and town) councils – to enable rural communities to make the best use of local resources and networks. Specific measures proposed include access to dormant asset funding and working with the banking sector to improve their engagement with the community and voluntary sector.

Local government pay negotiations

On a turnout of 34%, UNISON’s members have voted by 63.5% to 36.5% to accept the National Employers’ final pay offer for local government services (‘Green Book’) employees. GMB and/or Unite must also vote to accept the employers’ offer for the pay deal to be finalised, implemented and paid to employees. Unite’s membership consultation closes on 14 October, and GMB’s on 21 October. I will continue to keep you updated.

Free webinar on the Local Council Award Scheme

A reminder that our next free webinar about the Local Council Award Scheme (LCAS) is on 23 November 2022. Around 700 councils across England are already accredited, and this webinar explains the benefits of the scheme, and how it works and gives examples of how to submit a successful application. LCAS is all about celebrating the achievements of local councils and providing a framework to support all local councils to improve and develop to their full potential. You can book your place and find out more information about this and other upcoming events here.

The Civility and Respect Project

The Civility and Respect Project has released a new video to encourage local (parish and town) councils to sign up for its pledge. The video features representatives from the sector explaining the civility and respect pledge and encouraging local councils to sign up to help tackle poor behaviour and support culture change. As I say in my brief appearance, please sign the pledge!

On the blog: BHIB Councils Insurance

Insurance is almost always one of the last things on people’s minds, yet a carefully considered insurance programme surrounding the contract works can also take some time to compile. Find out more in our latest blog by our partners, BHIB Councils Insurance.

And finally…

Congratulations to our colleagues at NALC’s IT partner, Cloudy IT, for recently completing their Snowdon Charity Challenge. Completed in under 9 hours, their trek up and down the highest mountain in England and Wales was aid of their charity foundation which helps young people unlock their potential and discover exciting new career opportunities. Well done!

Chief executive’s bulletin (2)

Energy Bill Relief Scheme

Following the new prime minister’s recent pledge to act on energy bills, the government announced its Energy Bill Relief Scheme this week. This is an important issue we have been raising with the government, which is why I am pleased to say that we’ve been advised the scheme covers councils, including local (parish and town) councils. The scheme is a six-month energy price guarantee which should help mitigate some of the extra pressures councils at all levels face this year because of spiralling energy costs. We will continue to ensure the government understands the ongoing cost pressures on local councils, particularly related to the cost-of-living crisis. I am keen to continue to gather examples of what you are doing to help and support your communities, as well as the financial challenges you face – please let us know at policycomms@nalc.gov.uk, as well as to your county association.

On the blog: CCLA on interest rates

New on the blog this week is an assessment of the Bank of England’s decision to increase interest rates by Rob Evans, senior portfolio manager at NALC’s partners, CCLA. Rob’s highly informative piece covers the rationale behind the increase, the risk of recession, quantitative tightening, the future path for the Bank Rate and the impact on deposit funds.

Fortnightly meeting with county officers

At this week’s regular fortnightly meeting with county officers, we were joined by Julie Walker and Kevin Richards from NALC partners BHIB Councils Insurance. They ran through the current status of the insurance market and the support they offer to local councils, as well as answered questions on issues that local councils are currently facing with insurance. Later in the meeting, we looked to the future coronation of the King and discussed the support and advice that local councils would find useful in the run-up to that event.

NALC committees

NALC’s Finance and Scrutiny Committee and the Management Board both met this week. Their main item of business was financial. They noted that our external auditors had agreed to our accounts for 2021/22 without qualification. The Finance and Scrutiny Committee took a long and hard look at our indicative future budgets, especially with current inflationary pressures. In light of those discussions, both meetings recommended a small increase in our affiliation fee for 2023/24 to 7.71 pence per elector, capped at £1,978 for larger councils.

In/out and about

September always marks the start of a nice and busy Autumn season of conferences and events, including the county association’s annual general meetings. It’s great to see the number of face-to-face events increasing alongside the continuation of some very productive remote meetings. I think it is important that the sector maximises the benefits from both ways of coming together.

• This week I was thrilled to attend the inspirational Suffolk Community Awards, showcasing what community groups, individuals and local councils can do to improve quality of life in challenging times. NALC’s president, Baroness Scott of Needham Market, presented the Suffolk Association of Local Councils award of the village of the year to Bredfield, demonstrating what a small local council of 150 households can do to promote community spirit, including art classes, a French conversation group, a bowls club, Jubilee Meadow project, community orchard, a Wildlife Friendly Village and even a pop-up pub!
• I also travelled to Leeds to speak at the latest impressive conference from the Yorkshire Local Councils Association, which had a packed programme from early morning to early evening filled with keynote speakers, 20 workshops and several exhibitors. I can certainly see why they won County Association Project of the Year in the NALC Star Council Awards 2021!
• NALC’s chair, Cllr Keith Stevens, joined other national organisations at the Centre for Ageing Better (CAB) reception in London to discuss the challenges of an ageing population, which I know many local councils are helping to address. Did you know that in 2032, 22% of the population is predicted to be over 65? You can read more about CAB’s new strategy. And the next day, Keith was impressed by the Essex Association of Local Councils well attended AGM at Hylands Hall.
• On 22 September, Jane Moore, senior solicitor and legal services manager, was a speaker at the Westminster Insight conduct and standards in public life online training day about how NALC and the wider sector have sought to raise standards and improve culture, highlighting, in particular, the work of the Civility and Respect Project. That evening Charlotte Eisenhart, head of member services, spoke at the AGM of the East Riding and Northern Lincolnshire Local Councils Association to give an update on the work of NALC and issues affecting the sector at a national level; there was also an update from Humberside Police Force.
• Both NALC and SLCC colleagues joined up on 21 September at an online meeting to brief Emma Hardy, MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (and a former town councillor herself!), on the Civility and Respect Project, where she offered to support and promote our work on standards locally as well as in Parliament.

NALC National Network: Super Councils

The NALC National Network: Super Councils met remotely on 14 September 2022, hosted by Chris Borg, policy manager. We were pleased to be joined by Will Brett and Inayat Omarji from the We’re Right Here campaign, which urges the national government to increase community power at the local level, including through a new Community Power Act. They are keen to build a group of local councils from among the network and beyond to support and inform the campaign and help advocate for community power – if you’d like to get involved, please let us know at policycomms@nalc.gov.uk. During a discussion on the cost-of-living crisis, some councils were concerned about the impact of increasing energy costs and were keen for NALC to lobby the government to ensure local councils were included in any energy bill relief scheme. The network agreed to provide examples and evidence to support our work. Other issues discussed in the open forum included parish polls, community governance reviews and Operation London Bridge. The next meeting is on 31 October.

And finally…

In two recent responses to government consultations, NALC has called for the government to channel some of the English portions of £700 million in dormant assets funding to local councils and urged the government to introduce a licensing scheme for all short-term holiday lets.