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Who we are and what we do

The LGA is the national membership body for local authorities and we work on behalf of our member councils to support, promote and improve local government.


Who are our members?

Our core membership comprises 315 of the 317 councils in England and includes district, county, metropolitan and unitary authorities along with London boroughs and the City of London Corporation. The 22 Welsh unitary councils are in membership via the Welsh Local Government Association. 

We also operate an Associate scheme for organisations whose purpose and objectives are aligned with our own. Our Associates include fire and rescue authorities, police, fire and crime commissioners/police and crime commissioners, national park authorities and town and parish councils via the National Association of Local Councils (NALC)’s corporate associate membership.

What is the LGA?

We are a politically-led, cross-party organisation that works on behalf of councils to ensure local government has a strong, credible voice with national government. We aim to influence and set the political agenda on the issues that matter to councils so they are able to deliver local solutions to national problems.

Our improvement offer

The LGA provides a range of practical support, on a free of charge and/or subsidised basis, to enable local authorities to exploit the opportunities that this approach to improvement provides. This includes support of a corporate nature such as leadership programmes, peer challenge, LG Inform (our benchmarking service) and programmes tailored to specific service areas such as children's, adults', health, care, financial, culture, tourism, sport and planning services.