Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Deferred
Undertake a review of local government statutory service requirements by the end of 2025.
Recommendation
The Government must undertake a review of which local government services should, and which should not, be statutory requirements. This review must begin by the end of calendar year 2025 and go to consultation by June 2026. If changes are needed to legislation to bring statutory requirements in line with the review, these must be made before the end of this Parliament. (Recommendation, Paragraph 23) Services under strain
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response focused on ongoing and planned reforms for specific services like children's social care, SEND, and homelessness, including funding commitments and upcoming strategies/white papers, rather than committing to a review of which services should be statutory requirements.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
12. The former Deputy Prime Minister announced a review of the statutory duties placed on local government at the LGA Conference on 3 July 2025. The review is focused on exploring whether the requirements placed on the sector to deliver duties could be simplified or improved, whilst retaining the critical services that communities expect. This will involve looking at legislation, guidance and others matters, such as reporting. 13. We want to be guided by the knowledge and experience of the sector, so are working in partnership with the LGA to ensure effective engagement and to test our thinking with local government experts. 14. We expect the review to continue for around a year, but where benefits can be delivered sooner than this we will do so. Any recommendations will be comprehensively tested with councils and agreed by relevant government departments, and if legislative change is needed, it will be delivered as soon as Parliamentary time allows. Services under strain
Read the full response on Parliament ↗