LGA business plan 2022–2025

The LGA Plan 2022-2025 was developed by a cross-party Task and Finish group commissioned by the LGA Board, with contributions from the nine policy/improvement boards. It was approved by the LGA Board in September 2022 and forms the basis of the work programmes for all our boards. 

The Plan is reviewed and updated annually to reflect the latest priorities and commitments of the LGA’s political leadership, informed by the priorities of our membership.

During 2024/25 we will develop a three-year LGA strategy and business plan supported by a medium term financial strategy which will come into operation from April 2025. This update therefore covers the 6 month period from 1 September 2024 to 31 March 2025.

In September 2023, the Board highlighted four themes for the year ahead. They were:

1. A White Paper for Local Government - our manifesto for the next government. The priorities set out in that White Paper will now form the basis of the work of the LGA and its policy boards in the year ahead. (Pages 9-10).
2. Supporting Care Leavers - our commitment to those leaving care and with care experience. In 2023 the LGA adopted the Care Leavers Covenant alongside our external work with councils. (Page 10)
3. Driving improvement and assurance. Our new framework was launched in 2023/24 and now forms the basis of our sector led improvement approach. (Pages 12-13)
4. One LGA, One Voice – our organisational change programme. This has now been integrated into a wider change portfolio – Future LGA, which will be a priority over the period of this business plan. (Pages 19-20).

The plan is divided into five parts:

Part 1 - about the LGA

Part 2 - promoting local government

Part 3 - improving local government

Part 4 - supporting local government

Part 5 - our business: how we work

The LGA is the National Voice of Local Government. We’re on the side of councils: promoting their work, supporting them to improve and helping them make a difference to people, places and the planet. This is both our vision and the golden thread that runs throughout this three-year plan. 

We aim to be the best membership organisation we can be. As the national membership body for local authorities, we provide the bridge between central and local government and we help councils deliver the best services to their local communities. 

Our core members are English councils in full membership and Welsh councils in corporate membership through the Welsh LGA. Our Associate members include fire and rescue authorities (FRAs), fire, police and crime commissioners (FPCCs and PCCs), national parks authorities and town and parish councils through their membership body National Association of Local Councils (NALC). 

Over the period of this business plan, we intend to strengthen our representation of local government by working more closely with combined authorities and their elected mayors and with PCCs and PFCCs and their membership body, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners.

We exist to promote, improve and support local government.

We are politically-led and cross-party and we work to give local government a strong, credible voice with national government and across the political parties. Supported by our team of experts covering every area of local government activity, we influence and set the political agenda on the issues that matter to our members so they can deliver local solutions to national problems. 

We know that priorities change and that we need to stay relevant to all our membership. We work across the breadth of local government, drawing in every tier of interest to promote and defend the reputation of the sector, focusing our efforts where we can have real impact. 

Our improvement programmes are sector-led and peer-based. Using expertise drawn from the sector, we build councils’ capacity to improve, so they can drive sustainable growth, deliver better public services and empower communities.

Part 2 - 4 of this business plan set out our priorities to promote, improve and support local government. 

Delivering on our ambition to be the voice of local government demands an efficient, well-managed and financially resilient business and a reputation for delivering high quality and value for money. Our internal business priorities are set out in part 5 of this business plan.

LGA group funding

• 15 per cent comes from the subscriptions of our member councils
• 26 per cent comes from the improvement grant from MHCLG (formerly Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
• 41 per cent comes from other central government grants and contracts 
• 6 per cent is rental and commercial income from our two central London buildings – 18 Smith Square and Layden House Farringdon
• 5 per cent comes from our joint ventures – GeoPlace and Local Partnerships.

Our staff

• 55 per cent of LGA staff are funded from grants and ringfenced programmes
• 33 per cent are core funded, which includes subscription income
• 12 per cent of staff fall under support services who support staff from both core and grants and ringfenced areas.

Our expenditure (2024/25) by cost category (£’000s)

Our budget (2024/25) breakdown by business plan priority (£’000s)

Our membership

• 315 of 317 English councils are in full membership of the LGA
• all 22 Welsh councils are in membership through the Welsh LGA
• 31 fire and rescue authorities along with the Essex, Northants, North Yorkshire and Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners are associate members 
• our associate scheme also includes fire, police and crime commissioners, national parks authorities, town and parish councils, and other joint arrangements.

Our political leadership

• 450 elected members from across England and Wales are actively involved in the LGA through our boards, committees, forums and task and finish groups
• in the past year, 174 member peers and 324 officer peers have actively led and supported our peer support activities

Our governance

Our boards, committees and task and finish groups lead our work to promote, improve and support local government and ensure that we can speak and act with authority on behalf of our sector. 

The LGA Plan frames their work and the work of all the staff who support them.

View the LGA organisational chart

• The LGA is an unlimited company and the LGA Board is its Board of Directors. The LGA Board sets the strategic direction of the LGA in consultation with the Executive Advisory Board and agrees the annual budget and business plan. 
• The eight policy boards and the Improvement and Innovation Board develop our policy lines and steer and oversee our activity in their respective areas in line with the LGA priorities. The Improvement and Innovation Board also oversees delivery of the LGA’s improvement work in line with our grant funding agreements and contracts. 
• Each board has its own work programme against which it monitors performance. The boards present their reports to the Councillors’ Forum every six weeks. A summary of performance is included in the quarterly performance reports to the LGA Board.

Key wins on behalf of local government

Since the publication of this three-year plan in September 2022, we have secured on behalf of councils:

• over £96 million in improvement support for councils 
• £83 million to support public swimming pools with the rising cost of energy
• increase in Local Housing Allowance rates (LHAs) for the first time in three years
• a third round of funding for Local Authority Housing Fund of £450 million, bringing total to over £1.2 billion in the last three years
• increased flexibilities on the use of Right to Buy receipts
• £5m additional funding for MHCLG’s Planning Skills Delivery Fund for Local Planning Authorities to target application backlogs
• an additional £17m for the rough sleeping initiative, bringing the total fund to £547m
• £100m surplus from the business rates levy account returned to the sector
• £150m top up to the existing Homelessness Prevention Grant, aimed at supporting Ukrainians in the Homes for Ukraine scheme and reducing the risks of wider homelessness
• £28m for new burden costs associated with delivering the council tax rebate
• £100m Additional council tax support funding in 2023/24
• £257m over two years to support victims of domestic abuse
• £26m new burdens funding to assist with issues around the implementation of Voter ID
• £103 million in Brownfield Land Release Fund capital grants for nearly 166 local authority brownfield housing projects in England
• £2.5 million in revenue grants to 5 authorities running Place Pilots and £1.2 million in revenue grants to 10 councils for OPE 10 projects.

Practical support 

During 2023/24 alone we provided support to all 317 councils in England. A snapshot of this support includes:

• delivery of 67 peer challenges (corporate peer challenges, finance peer challenges, governance peer challenges) and more than 1,500 days of peer support – providing at least £1.5 million saving to the sector
• 100% of councils engaged through the regional support programme, including post elections support provided to 100% of councils that changed political control 
• delivery of more than 2,500 councillor placements on leadership programmes, covering issues of importance to the sector
• highest recorded number of placements (270) and councils (106) registered to receive graduates for Impact: The Local Government Graduate Programme; as well as new graduate programmes in finance and planning (Pathways to Planning)
• more than 350 officers and members accessing finance learning and development opportunities  
• thousands of officers engaged through networks, spanning areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Communications, Transformation, Procurement and Sustainability 
• continuing support for 69 cross-public sector OPE partnerships to develop and deliver collaborative property projects that release land for housing and regeneration
• 492 direct support offers delivered by Partners in Care and Health 
• 531 councillors engaged at Children’s Services Improvement events.

Our influence and engagement

In 2023/24, the LGA:

• were quoted 626 times in Parliament
• appeared before 23 parliamentary inquiries and gave written evidence on 30 occasions
• informed debates on scrutiny of a wide range of primary legislation, successfully lobbying for reforms to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, Leasehold and Freehold Bill, Renters (Reform) Bill, Victims and Prisoners Bill and the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill
• featured 1,560 times in national media in 2023 – up 26 per cent on 2022 – and an average of 4 mentions a day
• spokespeople were interviewed live on national TV and radio 73 times.

What our members say about the LGA. 

In our last membership perception survey, carried out in 2023:

• 76% said they know a great deal or a fair amount about the LGA 
• 76% would speak positively about the LGA
• 73% are satisfied with the work of the LGA 
• 81% feel the LGA keeps them informed about their work
• 82% support sector-led improvement and
• 85% agree that the LGA reflects the values and priorities of local government

Influencing government policy and shaping how that policy is delivered through partnership at local level is a central part of our work and a priority for our membership.  

Our offer to government reflects the key local leadership role played by councils and the technical expertise they bring in service delivery and more generally across social, economic and environmental themes. 

We draw on good relationships with ministers and officials but we also build alliances with a range of other stakeholders and, where useful, explain our positions through the media. The scope is very broad and prioritisation is critical to ensure that we are fully effective in our promotion of the sector.   

Our policy boards lead our policy work and are essential to the prioritisation process. The boards balance immediate policy challenges with forward thinking to keep local government at the forefront of policy development. 

Over the remaining period of this plan, we will be revising our approach to enable the organisation to action the sectors ambition as outlined in our Local Government White Paper, and to actively engage in the priorities of the new government, on behalf of our membership.

The White Paper identified key priorities for the sector which we are using to influence the new government. The 12 White Paper priorities are outlined in the table below:

The new government has also set out five missions which will drive its own priorities:

We expect these missions to shape the government’s work to a very large extent, so our ability to achieve the first, fundamental, objective of the White Paper – to re-set the relationship between local and central government - will depend at least partly on the extent to which local government is seen to be able to contribute to those missions.

Most of our White Paper priorities directly support specific missions or will contribute to several of them (e.g. prevention and public service reform). We will also continue to work actively to deliver a formal Central Local Partnership, and to pursue sustainable funding and funding reform, as these are crucial to the long-term prospects for the sector. This will require investment in new relationships with Mayors and Combined Authorities, as well as the development of new capabilities (expansion of data, intelligence, AI) to underpin our work and support the sector at a time of serious financial stress for them.

Subsequently, the LGA has agreed that the White Paper and the missions combined will provide the new framework for delivering on our priorities. In addition, boards will continue to respond to reactive policy business as usual. It is anticipated that this will include focussed work around asylum, the COVID-19 Inquiry, response to recent cohesion issues, civility in public life and housing and planning. 

Supporting care leavers

Councils are corporate parents to children in care and care leavers. We want to ensure that those with experience of care are given the best start to their adult lives. Over the coming year, we will deliver a programme of activity to support our members in this important duty. 

This will include considering how the LGA as an employer can directly support those with care experience; ensuring councils have the resources, support and ideas to improve their offer for care leavers and bringing together partners to provide better support and opportunities for care leavers.

 We will: 

• Ensure that the LGA as an employer is supporting those with care experience, including establishing an internship scheme and guaranteed interviews for care leavers. 
• Promote the work of the Care Leaver Covenant.
• Provide updated resource packs for councillors on corporate parenting and supporting care leavers, reflecting the voice of those with care experience.
• Showcase best practice from councils on their work to support care leavers and develop an evidence base of “what good looks like.”
• Lobby government on what councils need to improve support for care leavers in the  long-term, including adequate resourcing for children’s social care and fully funded support for care leavers who were formerly unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
• Continue providing advice, guidance and training for councillors and officers, through our improvement offer. 
• Dial action is taken by building owners.

Our campaigns

We will support all this work through our priority campaigns:

• Step Ahead
• Debate Not Hate
• Make A Difference

Over the period of this business plan we will continue to develop new campaigns that match our priorities.

As the voice of local government, we support local government continuously to improve. One key way that we achieve this is by making use of high quality and trained member and officer peers, who provide robust critical challenge to councils.

Our sector-led approach is underpinned by the core principles that local government is responsible for its own performance, is accountable locally not nationally and that the sector as a whole has a collective assurance responsibility.

Using local government expertise − peers in particular − to provide leadership, critical challenge and support, we help councils to improve, innovate, transform and deliver positive outcomes for their communities. We provide tools and resources that enable councils to respond to present and emerging challenges and ensure that they have in place the building blocks of what makes a good organisation – a clear vision and set of priorities, strong political and managerial leadership, clear and effective leadership of the place, robust financial planning and capacity to improve.

Our present offer draws on the work undertaken to map the different elements that give assurance of the performance of the sector along with insights from our consultation on the assurance framework, which was introduced in 2023-24. By enhancing the focus on assurance, we will support councils to improve performance management, accountability, and transparency within their organisation. 

Driving Improvement and assurance

Leading the development of an improvement and assurance framework was one of the key recommendations of the LGA’s Corporate Peer Challenge. Following extensive consultation with the sector and stakeholders we have now published a framework which includes guidance and links to tools and support from the LGA and other bodies. This includes providing clarity on the role of Oflog and its relationship with the LGA’s sector led improvement approach.   

We continue to take action to strengthen our corporate peer challenge offer to make it more robust and consistent and to ensure that our peers, who are at the heart of our sector led improvement approach, continue to be the very best.   

Over the next 12 months we will:

• Continue to roll out enhanced training and development for our peers, driving greater consistency in the way members and officers become peers, including some form of accreditation, and in our expectations of peers carrying out these roles.
• Continue to improve our wider sector led improvement offers to maximise impact and continue to deliver value for money.
• Enhance our benchmarking tools so that councils continue to make even greater use of LG inform including through the creation of a mobile app.
• Continue to update the improvement and assurance framework and develop more tools to enable more people to use it effectively.
• Capture and share innovative and other practice by building on the successful Innovation Zone
• Continue to improve our communication of sector led improvement, raising the profile, success, value for money and impact of our approach and giving our peers the tools to enable them to become advocates and champions. 
• Ensure that key stakeholders, particularly government, recognise the value and impact of sector led improvement, the huge economies of scale it can bring and the importance of continuing to fund the programme. 

We will also continue to provide improvement support in the following areas:

Governance and finance 

Our improvement offer will continue to provide councils with tools to enhance governance and financial resilience, including through effective use of peers and data. It features:

• Peer challenges, covering areas such governance, finance, children’s and adults’ social care, as well as the LGA’s highly valued, and recently strengthened, Corporate Peer Challenge programme.
• Our regional support programme, including mentoring, top-team development and wider bespoke options, as well as a range of support to help smooth changes in political leadership or control.
• Good governance skills and knowledge, including training, development opportunities and tools for councillors and officers to support good governance and assurance. 
• Research and data offers, including LG Inform Plus and  LG Inform – our freely available award-winning data platform – which uniquely integrate thousands of data items about a council in a single system for benchmarking. The platform also provides wider tools and resources to promote data skills and capability to improve performance management and transparency and help local authorities make better use of data.
• A finance programme, supporting councils to build skills and identify issues to promote good financial management and respond to financial challenges and opportunities as they arise – including access to experienced Finance Improvement and Sustainability Advisers.
• Financial skills and knowledge support, providing members and officers with opportunities to improve financial knowledge and skills. 
• Continuing to work collaboratively with Oflog on data, use of peers, early warning conversations and further shared priorities.

Transformation

Our transformation programme supports councils to achieve their transformation goals, deliver efficiencies and drive continuous improvement across a range of services. It includes:

• Direct and targeted support and expertise to councils to increase their transformation capacity and capability, including support from Transformation peers.  
• A transformation, learning and skills programme, offering a range of learning and development opportunities to help local councils lead transformation activities.
• Wider tools and resources to support local transformation priorities, including the Transformation and Innovation Exchange.

Support for councillors

Working with and through our four political group offices, we will continue to offer advice, support and development opportunities for elected members including:

• Political leadership training and development to attract new talent and support councillors at every stage of their political career to be confident, capable local leaders. 
• Civility in Public Life programme supporting local authorities to address abuse and intimidation of councillors and improve standards of political discourse and behaviour in public office.

Support for officers 

We will continue to provide training to council officers to increase their skills and improve council capacity including through:

• Offers for statutory officers. Working with specialist partners, we have developed targeted leadership offers for Chief Executives, S151 and Monitoring Officers, to strengthen the support available to statutory officers.  Includes our new chief executive programme, coproduced with Solace, which delivers core training on the seven foundational themes set out in the Chief Executive curriculum. 
• Highlighting managerial leadership offer to help improve the leadership capacity of local government professionals now and in the future, from pipeline development programmes like the Solace Springboard and Amplify programmes, to senior officer leadership offers, such as Total Leadership
• Impact: The Local Government Graduate Programme, our flagship management development programme, which recruits the brightest and best graduates and places them in councils across the country.
• Attracting new talent through our NGDP Finance Scheme and Pathways to Planning Programme.
• Our new flagship National Recruitment Campaign, co-produced with Solace and the sector. 

Partners in Care and Health 

The PCH team is delivering a range of contracts and direct awards to enable us to continue to support councils and their care and health partners to deliver high quality adult social care and public health. Subject to the outcome of the process, we aim to continue to prioritise: 

• delivering the Better Care Fund
• improving commissioning, the fair cost of care and shaping the care market
• recruitment and retention in the adult social care market
• learning disabilities and autism
• adult safeguarding
• public health. 

Children’s Services Improvement programme

Our Children’s Services Improvement programme supports councils to help children, young people and families to achieve the best possible outcomes. We will continue to offer:

• Leadership training, networking opportunities, mentoring and coaching for political and corporate leaders with responsibilities for children’s services
• Improvement support and diagnostic/peer challenge activity framed around specific themes and issues (including children’s resources, capacity and finances)
• Range of improvement activity to ensure councils are effective corporate parents. 
• Development and dissemination of best practice to ensure councils understand what works for families
• Targeted support to enable the development of speech and language in the early years

Other service specific support

We will continue to offer the following service specific programmes:

• Communications improvement programme - support, and training for councils to communicate effectively with residents, media, partners and employees. 
• Culture and sport improvement programme to help councils tackle the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities.

We offer additional expert technical and professional support that responds to a wide range of issues, challenges and opportunities outside our main improvement programmes. These include a comprehensive workforce offer, specialist legal and communications expertise, support to councils in their role as guardians of place and data and digital support.

Over the period of this business plan we will focus on the following key areas:

Support to the local government workforce

Recruiting and retaining good staff at all levels is central to excellent local services and a thriving local democracy. The impact on the workforce of continued high living costs, following years of restricted supply of key professions and reduced competitiveness with other employers, is an acute challenge. 

Our comprehensive workforce offer involves leadership of national collective bargaining, as well as supporting councils to address capacity and capability issues. We will:

• Lead on national collective bargaining across local authorities, schools, fire and rescue authorities, police support staff and other related workforces.
• Provide comprehensive workforce support covering workforce planning, officer-member relationships and HR/OD reform looking at organisational structures, pay frameworks and employee engagement. 
• Continue to offer specialist pensions support, including training courses for councillors and employers, as well as regulatory support from our team of expert advisers.
• Promote national programmes that enhance and support the local government workforce and respond to significant skills shortages, including T Levels and apprenticeship support programmes.Deliver a new Equal Pay offer to improve councils’ ability to adopt and apply measures and interventions that minimise and mitigate risks from potential unequal and inequitable practices and actions relating to pay, terms and conditions and equal rights.

Legal and governance support

The LGA has a proven track record of successful legal action on behalf the sector, costing councils a fraction of the cost and delivering significant benefits. We also provide expert governance support. We will:

• Offer/commission specialist legal support on issues affecting a number of councils including conclusion of the Visa/Mastercard and trucks cartel collective actions and support on building safety.
• Contribute to public inquiries in support of the sector including the COVID-19 Inquiry. 

Communications and events

Our communications expertise is a core benefit of LGA membership and the work of our communications teams increases our reach and ensures that our voice is heard both within and far beyond our sector. We will continue to offer:

• a comprehensive programme of free and paid for events - in-person, hybrid or virtual
• emergency media support to member councils on a 24/7 basis
• daily updates from the national and broadcast media on coverage that relates to local government and LGA media releases
• LGA Communications and Parliamentary Network, providing public affairs and communications insights through bulletins, events and support
• media relations activity to promote good practice promote and defend the reputation of local government and promote LGA lobbying, campaigns and improvement work
• First magazine
• creation of a new Communications Leaders Network.

Supporting local people and places

Councils are the guardians of place. Our range of placed-based programmes are designed to support councils in that role. We will continue to offer a range of practical and technical support, including:

• Support to locally-led public sector partnerships helping councils to collaborate with central government and make the best use of their land and buildings through One Public Estate (OPE), and to access the Brownfield Land Release Fund (BLRF).
• Advice, support and training on planning, environment and service delivery through the Planning Advisory Service.
• Devolution support to help councils lead their place-shaping ambitions and enable further devolution.
• Procurement and commissioning support, to help councils to use the new Procurement Act to add value and deliver better outcomes through their supply chains
• Sustainability programme to build councils’ capability and capacity to reach their local carbon reduction and adaptation targets. Support includes tools, networks and training.
• Support for councils to take action against private owners of blocks with combustible cladding and make them safe through the Joint Inspection Team.
• Support for fire authorities and National Employers to conduct collective bargaining, implement workforce requirements relating to fire reform and deliver effective services for local communities. Secretariat for firefighter, middle manager and brigade manager NJCs.
• Our Cyber, digital and technology programme, supporting the secure and inclusive use of digital technology by councils and communities.

Delivering on our ambition to be the voice of local government and the best membership organisation we can be demands an efficient, well-managed and financially resilient business and a reputation for delivering high quality and value for money.

Our staff and members are central to that ambition. The leadership of our elected members, the technical expertise of our staff and our ability to speak on behalf of local government are our unique selling points.

Our four political groups provide the main route through which we extend our reach to councillors from every member council and into the wider local government sector.

We actively seek feedback from our member authorities so we can prioritise those issues that are most important to them and we rapidly reprioritise when circumstances demand.

Equalities, diversity and inclusion and action to tackle climate change and minimise the negative impact of our activities are central to the way that we manage our business.

Our values underpin all our work:

Inclusive − we ensure that our work is inclusive of all voices.

Ambitious − we are ambitious for councils and their communities and are committed to striving for excellence in all that we do to support our colleagues, our membership and the sector to deliver the best possible outcomes.

Collaborative −we bring together the expertise and skills needed, working as one team.

Future LGA

Future LGA is our change portfolio, which consists of a set of programmes to support and enable the LGA to develop and deliver a new Strategic Framework for 2025 onwards. This will include a review of our governance and our organisational design (structures and ways of working) to ensure that we continue to be relevant and offer value for money for our members. 

We will continue to deliver against our six internal business themes:

Strengthening our voice

The closer we work across the sector, the stronger our voice on behalf of local government. We will:

• Maintain membership levels - keep subscriptions affordable, offer value for money and membership benefits to meet changing needs and expectations.
• Engage more fully with combined authorities and their elected mayors and with PCCs and PFCCs and their representative arrangements; maintain and develop our relationship with NALC on the issues where the interests of our members align.
• Deliver communications that reflect the issues that matter to councils, their residents and their communities – and that have the most impact.
• Offer a range of virtual and hybrid events and meetings to encourage member councils actively to participate in and contribute to our work. 
• Exploit full potential of CRM system to enhance integrated and targeted services to member councils, including a new online membership benefits resource. 
• Review our approach to the work of our Special Interest Groups to ensure they are fully engaged with the wider LGA. 

One politically-led organisation

Our politicians lead our work to promote local government’s priorities and influence the political agenda. We will:

• Undertake a comprehensive review of our political governance arrangements to ensure they are the best they can be to support our member councils. 
• Keep under review our Articles and governance framework to support strong political leadership and clarity between the respective roles of members and officers. 
• Provide opportunities for political debate and challenge as part of the process of achieving consensus.
• Ensure that the members who sit on our boards, committees and task and finish groups are properly briefed and supported to deliver their roles. 
• Ensure our political leadership, including our president and vice president, is fully briefed to represent local government authoritatively in their engagement with secretaries/ ministers of state, opposition spokespeople and in the national media.
• Engage with parliamentary proceedings to influence legislation and inquiries and ensure local government’s voice is heard in parliamentary debates and questions, including through our president, vice-presidents and other key parliamentarians.
• Influence national policy agenda through our high-profile media activity, promoting local government’s priorities in national print, online and broadcast media and the trade press.

Financially resilient and ambitious

Our medium-term financial strategy sets the framework for financial resilience and security, including diversifying our sources of income and investigating opportunities for new income streams to provide additional resources to further support our members. We will:

• complete the Layden House programme and develop a strategy for managing and exploiting our property portfolio, including our own occupation of 18 Smith Square
• retender the 18 Smith Square catering contract and other major contracts
• launch and embed the revised commercial strategy
• build the LGA’s bidding capacity and capability
• build on income generating and income source diversification successes; work with relevant government departments, councils and partners to secure improvement funding and ensure delivery against grant agreements.

Efficient business management

Efficient internal systems and processes and excellent IT underpin our work to promote, improve and support local government. We will:

• in conjunction with Brent/Shared Technology Services, deliver the ICT road map 2022-25 and continuous improvement of core systems and processes
• undertake a comprehensive review of our IT contract to consider options for future
• continue to build awareness of cyber security and enforce secure business processes throughout the LGA
• review and develop our own crisis response and business continuity approach
• embed the procurement strategy to ensure that all our procurement complies with our EDI policies and contributes towards net zero ambitions.

Supportive people management

We want the LGA to be a great place to work. We will deliver the equality, diversity and inclusion strategy and action plan 2021-24, and deliver the ‘People Plan’, which falls under the following five priority areas:

• attract, recruit and retain a diverse, skilled and committed workforce, increasing diversity, particularly at senior levels 
• develop and support the workforce to fulfil their career potential
• strengthen employee engagement
• create and maintain a forward-thinking, collaborative workforce where individuals are supported to achieve a positive work life balance
• recognise the contributions staff make.

Committed to a sustainable future

In line with the motions passed by the General Assembly in 2019 and 2021, we keep action to minimise the impacts of climate change at the heart of the way we manage our business. We will develop a Green Action Plan which will:

• keep our policies and practices under review to ensure that they contribute to combatting the adverse effects of climate change
• be based on the green audits carried out in 2020 and 2022, minimise the environmental impact of our two central London buildings
• ensure that our main external contracts have environmentally sustainable policies and practices
• encourage sustainable travel practices through our flexible working policy, staff and members’ expenses policies and continued participation in national sustainable travel initiatives (e.g. Cycle to Work scheme).

Local Partnerships

Local Partnerships is a joint venture between the LGA, HM Treasury and the Welsh LGA. Its support to local authorities and the wider public sector is focused on five main areas:

• climate response
• circular economy and resource efficiency
• infrastructure and assets
• complex contracting
• public sector capability and capacity.

GeoPlace

GeoPlace is a joint venture between the LGA and Ordnance Survey and is the central source for UK address and streets data. Working with the 355 councils in England and Wales, GeoPlace cleanses and validates the data they produce and creates and maintains national registers of 42.8 million addresses and 1.3 million streets. The data is distributed commercially by Ordnance Survey through the Address Base range of products. 

GeoPlace’s strategic objectives are to:

• deliver benefit from the use of spatial addressing and streets data
• create efficiencies and improvements in the public sector and
• provide an operational surplus back to the two partner organisations.

Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA)

PSAA is an independent company limited by guarantee and specified as an appointing person under the provisions of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. PSAA appoints an auditor to relevant local government bodies that opt into its national scheme and sets a scale of fees for the work which auditors undertake.

UK Municipal Bonds Agency plc (UKMBA)

The LGA is a major shareholder in the local government-owned UKMBA, which aims to deliver cheaper debt financing to councils through the sale of bonds in the capital markets. UKMBA works through its managed service provider to aggregate borrowing requirements and issue bonds. The LGA provides support services to the company.

How we measure success

How we communicate this

Chief Executives report to the LGA Board

Board chair’s reports to Councillors’ Forum 

Headlines report to SMT and LGA Board

Annual reports, including sector support annual report 

Bulletins to council leaders, chief executives, members, council staff and stakeholders 

Annual LGA in Parliament reports