Labour Communities and Local Government

I've spent the morning trying to understand this settlement. The up front £500m is a drop in the ocean compared to the £10bn Councils need. The Government is continuing to break their promise to fully fund Councils. However...

£500m spread across 343 councils will do little to reduce the risk of cuts or s114 notices. This funding will cover in the region of one month of covid related additional spend for SIGOMA authorities. This cannot be the last tranche.

Housing Secretary @RobertJenrick has plenty more questions to answer on #westferry - this won’t go away until he comes clean about what really happened #cashforfavours

Great to have @Keir_Starmer join us for this year’s virtual @LGAcomms conference, speaking this year as @UKLabour leader. This session with 1,000 participants is chaired by @nick_forbes #LGAconf20

Labour councils have borne the brunt of local government cuts over a decade of austerity, according to an analysis by the Guardian. theguardian.com/business/2020/…

“The funding that councils have received is nowhere near enough to cover the cost of getting communities through this crisis. “Now councils face a massive financial black hole that will hit poorer areas hardest.” - @SteveReedMP mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…

Leeds is not a bad council - far from it, Leeds is one of the best councils. And it's saying failure to fund Covid shortfall threatens it with effective bankruptcy. #doesthegovernmenteverlisten lgcplus.com/finance/leeds-…

The Govt told local councils to do “whatever it takes” to fight #covid19 but there's an impending crisis in towns and cities across Britain. @Keir_Starmer right to call on the Govt to keep their promise and provide emergency funding to support families and communities #PMQs

Source ‘close to MHCLG’ contradicts ⁦@RobertJenrick’s claim he fully disclosed his private discussions at exclusive fundraising dinner before forcing through ⁩Conservative donor’s £1bn housing development scheme against his own officials’ advice theguardian.com/politics/2020/…

Yep ⁦@RobertJenrick⁩ was too afraid to even show up to face questions over his behaviour in the Westferry cash-for-favours scandal theguardian.com/politics/2020/…

We’ve been calling for @RobertJenrick to publish all correspondence related to this decision - after this latest revelation he must make a full statement to Parliament, there can be no question of cash for favours in the planning process

'There is overwhelming agreement from all Labour councils that they will listen to and work with their local communities' - statement regarding public monuments from @LGA_Labour deputy leaders @AnntoinetteBra1 and @MichaelPayneUK after discussions with Labour council leaders

Instead of berating his council, Ben Wallace should be berating his Ministerial colleagues and the Prime Minister for not involving the local authority sooner.

Growing scandal over why ⁦@RobertJenrick⁩ unlawfully overrode his own planning inspector to help wealthy Tory donor avoid £40m tax theguardian.com/politics/2020/…

The Government need to sort out contact tracing fast - Johnson’s deadline for a ‘world-beating’ system is tomorrow and we can’t ease lockdown safely without it, so why have ministers been wasting time? theguardian.com/world/2020/may…

“Government seems not to have learned the lessons of its mishandling of PPE distribution and the roll-out of testing; it has been too slow to engage councils with the knowledge and expertise to deliver the programme quickly enough.” @SteveReedMP theguardian.com/world/2020/may…

“New test and trace system launched in the face of warnings from council leaders that they lack the data or powers to make local lockdowns work” Comments from @LGA_Labour leaders @nick_forbes @tmbc_leader @PhilipGlanville theguardian.com/world/2020/may…

The tories have lost overall control of West Devon Council this evening as a Cllr quits party over the Cummings furore devonlive.com/news/devon-new…

Here’s how ⁦@RobertJenrick⁩ diverted £100m of emergency covid19 cash away from areas with the highest infection rates ⁦@BBCRadio4⁩ independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

Weekend often favoured time for Jenrick Downing St briefings + @mhclg has had councils' latest returns for week. Will extra #localgov £ arrive now? Wkend feels make or break. Some expect s114s will be declared unless govt response to these returns adequate lgcplus.com/finance/threat…