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Greetings Friends and Colleagues!
LGA Independent Group Election Hustings
With nominations now closed for the elections of Group Leader, Deputy Leader and Treasurer/AGM Chair, I strongly encourage you to attend in-person our upcoming Group Election Hustings taking place on Monday 2nd June from 6-9pm at the LGA, 18 Smith Square, Westminster SW1P 3HZ. Earlier this week, an email was sent out to all our members inviting them to attend, listen to the candidates and ask questions. Refreshments will be available! My thanks go to Nick Kilby, CEO and founder of Cratus Communications, agreeing once again to chair this important event. If you are not able to attend in-person, then you can view the proceedings online via Microsoft Teams. Whichever option you decide, please email the Group Office so they can register your attendance. Please note if attending online, the teams link must not be shared with anyone else and will only be released 24 hours beforehand. Looking forward to seeing you on 2nd June!
Date for the Diary: LGA new members event!
The LGA is planning its next welcome event for new members on 19 June from 5-7pm. This is aimed primarily at newly elected members but current members are welcome also and is an introduction to the LGA as an organisation, its sector-led improvement offer as well as how the Independent Group Office can support you as valued members of our grouping. You will have the opportunity meet the Group Office members of staff as well as members of the Executive team, who will be happy to help and answer any further questions or queries. Booking is now open!
New councillor hub
Please remember, if you are a newly elected councillor or know of someone who has just been elected, the LGA is here to help! Our extensive resources page gives you the very latest information from the LGA including opportunities to sign up for forthcoming e-bulletins and councillor e-learning events. You will also have many questions that need answering and the LGA have provided a useful ‘new councillors frequently asked questions’ page for those interested.
Support for you from regional lead peers
Also, don’t forget the LGA has a wide range of resources and support available for those facing changes in political leadership and what to do next. This includes information for councils facing a change of control, no overall control as well as changes to councils’ portfolio holders and leaders. Our fantastic regional lead peers are already reaching out to those member authorities facing changes in leadership and weighing up potential coalitions and/or alliances. If this is you, please do make contact with your regional lead peer who can help navigate the inevitable tricky negotiations!
Solar Industry online meeting
There will be an online meeting planned on 4th June to further discuss the concerns raised about the takeover by the global solar industry of many thousands of acres of farmland; glass, steel and concrete cover areas the size of cities, sprawling over miles, setting our villages in an industrial landscape. The risk to land and water quality and noxious gases from the battery storage units is unnecessary. If all the applications went ahead, we would be ten times oversupplied. Whilst we finalise a date for this special, please do get in touch if you want to attend and a link with be sent to you. We have invited several speakers to attend from UK Solar as well as LGA officers and current councillors giving their perspective on this crucial issue.
Whilst we finalise a date for this special meeting, please do get in touch if you want to attend and a link will be sent to you. We have invited several speakers to attend from UK Solar as well as LGA officers and current councillors giving their perspective on this crucial issue.
UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum – from Deputy Cllr Caroline Jackson
UKREiif 2025 was "the place to be" evidently. Place enough for Lancaster to send a Chief Officer and for me, as Leader, to get up before six to catch a slow train to Leeds. The buzz definitely started on Leeds station where welcomers urged us out into the early morning river of well-shod and besuited attendees winding its way towards the Armouries.
The first day registration queue reached almost to the entrance; its slow-moving members gaining a generous allowance of Cllr Bev Craig's outdoor opening speech at the Marketing Manchester pavilion. Neat move.
For sure conferences are what you make of them and if, like me you are fixed on social housing issues; the financing of HRA new build, achieving high thermal efficiency, UKREiif this year began with the 'music to our ears' of the Deputy prime minister urging us to "build, build, build" promising " big changes" to come. Of course the promised £50 billion is still awaiting the financial statement and we hear that monies will not be with us till early 2026.
New to me this year was the sheer number of pavilions dedicated to new mayoral authorities and the regions. I saw presentations that were lively, slick, polished; our potential especially in the north, unlimited. Every one of them deserves investment, growth, community wealth. Is it me or is there something amiss when we, the public "place makers" are engaged in such frenetic and expensive competition with each other? When combined authorities force the freebies into your hands and the free gin on your stand gains the biggest audience?
There was one gleam of hope for me in this parallel universe, a session at the Government Knowledge Hub entitled "Great Green North". It was cancelled.
UKREiif 2025, is the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum
LGA and Independent Group work on Climate Change
LGA Local Infrastructure and Net Zero (LINZ) Board Independent Group representatives, Cllr Loic Rich and Cllr Diana Moore, with support from Board substitute Cllr Jonathon Essex, have been working cross-party at the LGA to explore what specific legal responsibilities on councils on climate change would mean. The LGA has now gone out to consultation to get the views of councils and interested parties including government departments, non-governmental organisations, interest groups, think tanks, alliances and more on whether councils should be set a statutory duty or duties to act on climate change. The consultation is now open and will close on Friday 30 May 2025 at 11.45pm.
Debate Not Hate survey
The LGA has launched its third annual Debate Not Hate Survey looking to gather information about councillors' experiences of abuse and intimidation during the last year, including the most recent local elections. All councillors should receive an email providing them with an individual link to the survey, unless they have requested not to be contacted. Any councillor who hasn’t received the survey is encouraged to get in touch to request access by emailing Hannah Sadiq. The survey will be open for two weeks until 4 June.
Pathways to Planning
Pathways to Planning offers councils a talented pool of graduate planners ready to start work in September 2025. The programme has just secured additional funding for participating councils and is offering a limited number of £40,000 bursaries to part-fund the salary of a Pathways graduate planner over two years. Every graduate hired through the programme comes with a £10,000+ bursary for postgraduate study. Register your interest by 18 June 2025 at 5.00pm or contact the team for more information.
The National Breastfeeding Helpline - 0300 100 0212 - Signpost women and families to support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The National Breastfeeding Helpline is funded by Department of Health and Social Care and run in partnership by two charities: the BfN and ABM. Support is available via phone, social media (Facebook and Instagram) and webchat from a team with accredited training and lived experience of feeding their own children. Find out more about how we can support women and families in your constituency and make your workplace (or town!) breastfeeding friendly!
Independent Group Annual General Meeting, 10am – 11.30am, Tuesday 1 July, Liverpool
Notice is hereby given that our Independent Group Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place on the first day of the LGA Annual Conference in Liverpool on Tuesday 1 July, from 10am until 11.30am.
Group members wishing to put forward a motion to the AGM must provide a draft to the Independent Group Office and/or a member of the LGA Independent Group Leadership 30 days in advance of the meeting. The deadline for receipt of draft motions is 23.59hrs on 1 June.
The LGA Independent Group Executive will then provide feedback on the draft motion.
Final and form Notice of Motion must be submitted to the Independent Group Office using the template that will be supplied by the Group Office, no later than 14 days before the AGM. The deadline for receipt of final and formal motions is 10am Tuesday 17 June.
Please note for a motion to be considered, motions should:
- Call upon the Group to change its own Constitution or the way it relates to and provides support to its membership.
- Raise issues of national importance to the Group’s members on which the Group or the LGA should have a policy and take action and asks the LGA or Group Officers to pursue a course of action.
- Enable the Group to have a collective and powerful voice on national issues and change the national narrative.
- Have positive intent.
For any questions or queries on motions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Attending in person the Independent Group AGM/LGA General Assembly only
Our members can attend the Independent Group AGM and/or the LGA General Assembly only, in person, at the LGA Annual Conference in Liverpool without paying for a ticket to the conference. Please note there will not be access to the rest of the conference.
To attend the Independent Group AGM only in person please register using this link.
Please note that the deadline to register to attend the AGM only, not the whole conference, is 6 June. We will not be able to accept applications after this date.
To attend the LGA General Assembly as well, your council needs to register you separately.
Our members can also attend the Independent Group AGM online. The Independent Group Office is currently finalising the process for attending the AGM online and further details will be available soon.
LGA General Assembly
The General Assembly - the 'Parliament of Local Government' - meets once a year and is the only LGA decision-making forum which all authorities in membership are eligible to attend and to vote.
At the meeting, the General Assembly elects the LGA’s political leadership, receives the annual report and accounts, and may debate motions on nationally significant issues for local government.
Further details, including how to book, is available on the LGA Annual Conference webpage.
Confirming your representatives
Member authorities are also now formally invited to appoint their representatives to serve on the LGA General Assembly from 1 July 2025 for the period of one year. The nomination form is now available in electronic format and will automatically alert authorities to the total number of votes they are entitled to.
To appoint your representatives for 2025-26 and inform us of observers / substitutes attending, please:
- Complete and automatically submit the nomination form: General Assembly Registration Form by the deadline of: Friday 6 June 2025.
Please be aware that this online form must be completed as confirmation of your nominated representatives as it will include important voting allocation information. Without this evidence, Members will not be able to vote.
Need further guidance?
Information on the General Assembly.
Or contact members services or phone Fatima de Abreu on 07464 652721 / Dan Hyslop on 07920 230092
Be a Councillor 2025-2026 Programme
With the recent local elections now over, our attention now turns to getting more individuals elected for next year’s set of elections! If you know of someone who is interested in politics and local government, and may be considering standing as a council candidate please do contact the Independent Group Office to be included in our e-list. We are currently in discussion with our peers over improvements to our programme offer which include, developing a core curriculum that participants can follow week-to-week with a workbook, covering everything from filling out a nomination form to getting elected and the first few weeks as a councillor. If this is something that might interest you, get in touch!
Best wishes,
Marianne
Cllr Marianne Overton MBE
Vice Chair of the LGA and Independent Group Leader
News from the LGA
Local Authority Funding Reform – Resetting the Business Rates Retention System: technical consultation
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) has published a technical consultation on Local Authority Funding Reform – Resetting the Business Rates Retention System. This will run for eight weeks until 2 June 2025. The consultation contains detailed consideration of how to set the Business Rates Baseline in 2026 as part of the Government’s funding reforms. The LGA will be submitting a response. Please share your views with the LGA Finance Team
Councillors’ guide to technology and leading practice on road treatments.
The LGA has published a new guide aimed at councillors on innovation and good practice in highways maintenance. The guide seeks to increase awareness of emerging practices related to preventative and reactive maintenance, and the use of technology and AI in how we fix our highways.
Dates for the Diary!
Tuesday 1 - Thursday 3 July 2025, Liverpool
Join us in Liverpool for the biggest event in the local government calendar, where we’ll be discussing the latest issues affecting local government.
Thursday 9 October 2025, 6.00pm - 7.30pm
This virtual event is for newly elected members or those just looking for a refresh. The virtual event will provide an overview of local government finance without any numbers - focussing instead on roles and responsibilities, key terminologies and processes. It will give you an understanding of both what you need to be aware of in your role and what you need to understand about your authority’s role.
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