Blog: 11/02/2022 - Quentin Baker, LLG President

Quentin Baker, LLG President

Levelling-Up continues to dominate the local government legal news, and there are numerous articles and commentary pieces within the bulletin setting out both the proposals and the reactions from across the sector.  

It’s certainly ambitious; but ‘ambition can creep as well as soar’ (Edmund Burke).  It will fall substantially to local authorities to make something tangible out of the sheer breadth of aspirational missions. Ultimately, the ability to deliver will, to a significant extent, come down to resources, which given the precarious financial state of local government finances highlights the challenge.  

Whilst we continue to digest the White Paper, LLG are organising a focused webinar, (free to members), to help you navigate the numerous themes involved.   

In other news, if you haven’t yet applied your mind to the Elections Bill, now is the time to do so as we speed towards December. It's not just Voter ID, Postal Voting and Proxy Votes which need consideration, as members are likely to be particularly concerned with the changes to campaigning and there is also the role of the Electoral Commission to consider. The Bill could, very possibly, attain Royal Assent in May 2022. Following this will be a number of statutory instruments anticipated throughout late autumn and hopefully guidance. Given the voter card system is due to go live before the end of the year now is the time to start working through anticipated changes. LLG will be holding an elections conference in March to help you navigate the Bill and will look to integrate sessions into our Governance Conference later this year.   

Turning to LLG news, we continue to push the government for remote meeting provision for local authorities. We sent letters to all the main parties last month and following the Secretary of State’s response to a question in parliament indicating some sympathy for our need for Hybrid meetings, we have again written to Michael Gove.  

Together with ADSO, we have drafted a model resolution for councils to declare support for the provision of remote/hybrid meetings which you can find in the MO Forum Group. As for our petition, we have broken through the 10,000-signature mark and encourage your continued support in the hope of raising that impressive number even higher.  

We are also delighted to be invited to give oral evidence before an All Party Parliamentary Group on Kinship Carers in March. If you are able to contribute to the evidence we are collating, please visit the Forum or contact Helen@llg.org.uk  

Finally, there is still time to apply for a number of Board Director positions and National Lead positions with LLG. Please visit our news pages for further information.

Best wishes

Quentin Baker

LLG President