Agenda item

The LGA Group Leaders will present to Councillors’ Forum on how the LGA’s First 100 days campaign has influenced their respective party manifestoes.

They will be joined by Professor Tony Travers, Director of LSE London, a research centre at the London School of Economics and Visiting Professor in the LSE’s Government Department. Professor Travers will discuss the possible outcome of the Local and General Elections and their impact on the work of local government.

The Chair welcomed Members to Councillors’ Forum.  He also welcomed Professor Tony Travers, Director of LSE London, a research centre at the London School of Economics, and Visiting Professor in the LSE’s Government Department.

Professor Travers discussed a number of issues regarding the potential outcome of the forthcoming Local and General Elections and their possible impact on the work of local government. Regarding the General Election he highlighted the following points:

·         The conventional two party political system has changed and more political parties were involved in politics at a local and national level.

·         Current polling suggested that the Labour and Conservative parties would receive a very similar number of seats in the General Election.

·         There were a number of scenarios for national government following the General Election; an outright win for one party, a formal coalition agreement or a minority government with a ‘confidence and supply’ arrangement with one or more smaller parties.

·         Should the future government push forward with English devolution plans there could be a situation where Labour may be the largest party, but the Conservatives would have a majority when voting for English laws.

Professor Travers also discussed the possible outcome of the elections for local government:

·         There was likely to be more devolved powers for English city regions and potentially county regions.

·         A future government may suggest a move towards proportional representation in local government if smaller parties are involved in a formal or informal coalition agreement.

·         A comprehensive spending review would be likely to be published in June or July 2015, with the local government funding settlement following in December as usual.

The LGA Group Leaders discussed how the LGA’s First 100 Days campaign had influenced their own parties’ manifestos. The Group Leaders particularly focussed on how the national debate on devolution and decentralisation had resonated strongly with political parties. The LGA should continue to present a united front on devolution, and the First 100 Days campaign showed costed examples of policies which would benefit the whole local government sector.

In the discussion which followed Members made a number of comments around the relationship between MPs and local councillors, the local government grant settlement and the likelihood of continued austerity measures and council tax freezes following the General Election. The Chair thanked Professor Travers for his contribution to the meeting.