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Dear Colleague,
Welcome to the LGA Conservative Group’s weekly email newsletter. Its purpose is to highlight the latest information associated with COVID-19, which I hope will be useful to you and your council.
Last week, thanks to close partnership working between councils and businesses, many non-essential shops began to re-open. This represented an important milestone in the recovery stage and should provide a much needed boost to local economies.
Building on the recent announcement of £63 million in funding to help those who are struggling to buy food and other essentials, I also strongly welcome last week’s news that the free school meals voucher scheme will continue over the summer holidays.
I know that we in Conservative local government will also continue to do all that we can to support the most disadvantaged in our communities.
I was delighted to welcome the Party Chairman, Amanda Milling MP, to our online Group Executive meeting on 17th June.
Amanda thanked Conservative councillors for their hard work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and a number of political issues that were raised during this private session are now being taken forward.
We are continuing to work closely with the MHCLG Ministerial team. Currently we are working to set a date for Minister of State, Simon Clarke to meet with Conservative members to discuss the Governments Devolution White Paper ahead of its anticipated publication in the Autumn.
We will also be delighted to welcome our Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick, as a speaker during the LGA’s series of ‘virtual annual conference’ webinars which take place this month and next. For more details, and to register for Robert’s session and others, please visit the LGA website.
As always, if there is anything I or our regional lead peers can do to assist, please do not hesitate to contact us. You can find more details about our regional lead peers at the bottom of this newsletter.
Best wishes,
Cllr Izzi Seccombe OBE
Leader, LGA Conservative Group |
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For all the latest news from the LGA Conservative Group please follow us on Twitter at @LGACons
If you’d also like to subscribe to the LGA’s monthly e-bulletin of First Magazine, please visit the dedicated website.
Right to Buy receipts
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has temporarily relaxed the rules on Right to Buy receipts. Following our calls for an extension, local authorities will be allowed additional time to incur expenditure.
Test, trace and contain
Further to the letter councils received on the distribution and allocation of the £300 million to support their work around testing and tracing, the Department of Health and Social Care has now published the grant determination, allocations and conditions.
The LGA has also launched a new Testing, Contact Tracing and Outbreak Management K-hub. This is intended to provide information specifically targeted at councils. It serves as a document library, an area for best practice examples, and provides information on the LGA’s support offer and webinars.
Workforce
The Government has published its latest update on the Job Retention Scheme, primarily focused on flexible furloughing, with employees being able to return to work part time from 1 July.
Town deals
The Government has published further Towns Fund guidance which sets out the information local leaders need to prepare for a bid and develop proposals in the form of a Town Investment Plan.
The 100 selected places have four weeks to decide whether to submit a plan by 31 July 2020 or, in a later cohort, by either October 2020 or early 2021.
Personal protective equipment
Two new guidance documents have been issued on PPE: one for staff delivering homecare and the other for staff delivering care in care homes.
Electoral canvass
The necessary regulations to amend the final date for submitting this year’s revised electoral registers have now been published.
The date has been extended from 1 December 2020 to 1 February 2021, thus allowing council staff more time to complete canvassing and maintain the accuracy of their registers.
Conservative Regional Lead Peers
The regional lead peers and the areas they cover are as follows:
Lord Porter of Spalding CBE - National Lead Peer & Regional Lead Peer for the South East
Councillor Paul Middlebrough - Regional Lead Peer for the South West, Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Councillor William Nunn - Regional Lead Peer for the East of England
Councillor Teresa O’Neill OBE - Regional Lead Peer for London
Councillor Glen Sanderson JP - Regional Lead Peer for the East Midlands, North East and Yorkshire & Humber
Councillor Mike Wilcox - Regional Lead Peer for the West Midlands and North West.
LGA virtual annual conference 2020
The LGA will be hosting a series of virtual annual conference webinars during June and July, featuring keynote speakers from local and central government including Robert Jenrick MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government.
You can find out more information and register your attendance via the LGA website.
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