Congratulations first of all to Eamonn on being elected to his new role, very very important and I know he will do a fantastic job for the LGA. And it’s fantastic to be here myself.
I’ve attended this conference many times over the years as a council leader initially, but I think the last time I had the chance to address you was five years ago when I gave a speech from my dining room table, during the tail end of the pandemic.
[Political content redacted]
I am immensely proud of the progress we have made since the General Election.
And we have done that in partnership with all of you here – local and national government working together to make a difference for our communities.
[Political content redacted]
I’ve spent the past ten months rebuilding the foundations for a more sustainable local government sector. Today I want to make the case for what I believe must come next.
Regional inequalities in this country are so grotesque that although ours is the second-richest country in Europe, seven out of the ten poorest regions in Northern Europe are in England. That fact tells you how this country is being pulled apart and why we need radical change.
We are one of the most over-centralised countries in the developed world. Power is held in too few hands.
That’s why this government is pursuing the most radical programme of devolution in our history, reorganising local government and bringing in new regional mayors to get power out of Whitehall and into the hands of people up and down this country.
But power can be over-centralised locally as well as nationally. Residents can feel just as shut out by the town hall as by Whitehall if it refuses to listen to them. That’s why I want to put power directly into the hands of local communities and public service users as well as their elected representatives. Double devolution that puts communities in control. A building block that was missing from our early reforms.
But now, we are making real headway.
I’ve set up a Place Unit in Whitehall to bring together government departments to supercharge neighbourhood working. Effective place-based delivery requires service integration at the local level, collaborative partnerships including business’ and the third sector, and pooled budgets that can be redirected to meet locally defined priorities.
It’s Whitehall that’s been standing in the way of this, protecting their own power instead of working together. It’s my job to end that and open up the space for innovation with a more radical version of Total Place.
Our Community Power Pilots, backed by £15m of new funding, will support councils and communities to innovate with radical new approaches to meeting residents’ needs. A £61m Community Right to Buy Fund will let communities take control of much-loved local pubs, venues, and community centres if they face closure.
We will reform how we procure to bring in more small, community-led providers, focused on outcomes and social value. New place-based budget pilots will test how far we can go with pooled budgets, joined up services, and giving places the power to experiment in how to run things differently and better.
These pilots will operate alongside so many public services already showing the power of neighbourhood working, co-production with service users, collaboration across sectors. These are the pioneers for community power, which must be an essential part of meaningful devolution.
I learnt first-hand that local government is at its best when it shares power with those it serves.
Back when I was a councillor, I helped a housing estate in Brixton set up a residents’ management organisation where their housing managers report into an elected residents’ board rather than to officials in the town hall.
And services on that estate have improved dramatically ever since.
I saw community groups come together to make a huge impact in reducing violent youth crime when the council opened up its funding and spaces to their ideas.
And I saw a dying covered market brought back to life when a social enterprise brought together businesses, owners and the council and opened up empty units to start-up businesses on low or no rent for the first few months of their existence. It’s become a fantastic example of community-led regeneration.
When communities have more control, they use their energy and creativity to find answers. They push services towards preventing the problems in their lives rather than simply trying to managing them. And they join services up in ways that respect the relationships that sustain us as human beings rather than carving them out as if they’re of no value.
We’ve put those principles at the centre of our Pride in Place programme. Nearly 300 of the poorest communities will get up to 20 million pounds each to transform life and life chances in their areas. But most exciting of all, it’s local people who will take the decisions about how that money gets spent, because it’s local people who know best what needs to change in their own area.
Just like that estate in Brixton, we’ll give people the power they need to get the change they want to see.
This new approach to decision-making is powerful enough to change every community in our country, but to make it happen I know we need change from Government too.
As a baseline, local government needs to stand on firm foundations.
[Political content redacted]
Fair Funding has reconnected a bigger funding pot with deprivation and need.
[Political content redacted]
We agreed the first multi-year funding settlement in a decade so councils have the confidence to plan.
And we took the decision to end two-tier local government with its costly duplication so we could plough the savings back into frontline services, and get regions ready for the mayoral devolution that will follow. I make no apologies for being ambitious about this – we will complete reorganisation within this Parliament because we need devolution to happen at pace so we can rebalance wealth, power and opportunity across our country. But we’ll do it in a way that listens to you in local government and we’ll do it in a way that ensures service safety is not just maintained, but is paramount.
This isn’t just about reorganising councils. It’s about a radical transformation in how local services work for local people, opening up power to our regions and our communities, reshaping the local state and local democracy. It’s our chance to shape a better future for our communities. And that, my friends, is not something we can afford to slow down.
Many councils are still facing huge financial challenges. As we continue to grow the economy there will be an opportunity for further funding increases. But we must make sure that every penny we spend, is spent well. And one area where we need immediate change is in tackling profiteering.
In children’s social care, the 15 biggest providers including private equity funds make an average operating profit of £45,000 for every child. Some councils are being forced to pay up to £1m for a single child because they have no alternative.
We can’t let this continue. The Education Secretary and I will not flinch from capping the profits of private providers to prevent this kind of exploitation that damages communities and pushes so many councils to the brink financially.
We won’t have strong communities if we don’t tackle the housing crisis.
[Political content redacted]
This government is fully committed to a step-change in council-house building. Last year, we built more new council and social homes in one year than in any other year for 40 years – when records first began. This year, we opened the first phase of the £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme to fund the biggest increase in social and council house-building in this country in a generation.
Councils asked for the certainty of rent convergence, and you got it. And our new Social Housing Bill, going through Parliament right now, changes Right to Buy so new council homes are protected from being sold off so you have the confidence to go ahead and build them.
Our changes to planning laws and regulations speed up the time it takes to get spades in the ground and build the homes we need. I strengthened those changes as soon as I came into this job.
And recognising the particular challenge facing London, where housebuilding of all tenures had ground to a near halt for almost three years, I worked with Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, to agree an acceleration package that will get the capital building again.
Working together my friends, we will end the housing crisis once and for all.
Councils are getting more power, and more funding, to improve the way you serve local communities. But residents need to know their local council is serving them well. government also needs to be clear about its expectations.
The Local Outcomes Framework set out those expectations in February, and the first results will be published later this year. The new Local Audit Office will make sure audits are timely, robust, and can identify problems before they become crises. And we will publish and consult on new Best Value guidance.
Together, these measures will bring about a stronger focus on standards without overburdening the sector as happened in the past. They will make it clear where responsibility lies, who is accountable for improvement, and what support is available when it’s needed.
To make this more meaningful for residents, I will introduce a new Neighbourhood Guarantee outlining the basic standards everyone in every community can expect. People judge their council – and often politics much more widely – by what they see on their doorstep and in their neighbourhood. They expect and they deserve clean, safe streets, well kept parks and green spaces, fly tipping and graffiti cleaned up before it turns the whole area into an eyesore that attracts crime and anti-social behaviour.
That’s what they will now get, with a Neighbourhood Guarantee they can hold councils to account for, and a new standards system, to drive improvement across the sector.
In the past two years, this government has laid the foundations for a revolution in local government. We are pushing power down and out, into our regions, and directly into our communities.
We’re doing it because this must become a country that works for everyone, everywhere.
We need to be a country where opportunity is open to everyone, where every town can thrive, where every community feels listened to and respected, where every neighbourhood is a place to feel proud of, a place to call home.
That requires change, and you are the people on the frontline who will make that change happen.
I know what’s needed because, just like you, I’ve been there and done it. But I recognise, like each of you, that I’m just one link in a long chain of change that we’re all part of.
When I talk to councillors, council officers, partners from the public, private or community sectors, I’m always struck by the passion you have for the communities you serve. The difference you make, often in the most difficult circumstances, is inspirational.
So I mean it when I say thank you for what you do. Because you change lives every day in every community up and down this country.
I know how ambitious you are to do more and to do even better.
My job is to help you achieve that.
Together, we are building a better country, and we’re doing it one community at a time.
Thank you.