“The unsung heroes of this crisis” – Starmer’s full speech to the LGA

Below is Keir Starmer’s speech to the Local Government Association conference today, in which he described councils as the “unsung heroes of this crisis” and set out plans for a “new relationship between national and local government”.

Thank you for inviting me to speak today. It seems a long time since I was with you at last year’s LGA conference in Bournemouth In fact, looking at you across this screen, it almost feels like another world. I had hoped that this would be a chance for us to meet in person. It would have been the first major conference of my leadership. A chance to thank our fantastic local government leaders. To hear about the challenges you’re facing. To discuss our vision for the future of local government, and to underline that under my leadership, local government will be at the heart how Labour rebuilds our country and our communities.

But, as with so much in the last few months, we’ve had to adapt. My first speech as Labour Leader was filmed in my living room and my first conference is by Zoom! I want to thank everyone at the LGA for making it possible for us to meet today; albeit virtually! And I also want to say a much wider thank you to the councillors, the cabinet members and the leaders, to the officials, the officers and the staff, to the more than one million people working in local government the length and the breadth of the country.

Even in “normal times” you deliver the services we all depend on. The ones that, frankly, are too often taken for granted. But during this crisis, you have been at the frontline. Whether in our care homes and delivering social care, obtaining protective equipment, preventing homelessness, emptying our bins, keeping our streets safe and delivering food and basic supplies to those in need. You have been among the unsung heroes of this crisis. We all know who the key workers are now. And so I want to thank you all.

Of course, everything has to be seen through the prism of coronavirus. This is the greatest crisis our country has faced in most of our life times. Our economy has been shut down, leaving businesses and workers alike facing huge uncertainty; loved ones went months without seeing one another; for some this meant agonising decisions, missing births and even funerals; and – tragically – many of us have friends, family, constituents and neighbours who were taken too soon by this awful disease.

The UK has suffered more than most countries. 65,000 have died because of Covid-19. Our economy projected to decline by more than any OECD country this year. And millions of people are living in insecurity about their jobs and their incomes. But during this crisis, we have also seen incredible and inspiring moments: Captain Tom Moore, who captured the nation’s imagination in raising £32 million for NHS charities; the dedication and bravery of those tackling this disease on the frontline; the quiet selflessness of those who came together to form community groups or check in on elderly and vulnerable neighbours. No one is pretending we are out of the darkness yet. But they have been the glimmers of light that have got us through. And when we come out of this crisis, but will be because of them.

We’re now in a new phase of the pandemic. As lockdown restrictions begin to ease, people are returning to work, to high streets and to public places in towns and cities across the country. We welcome that. It may seem strange for the leader of the opposition to say this, but we want the government to get this right. People’s lives and livelihoods depend in it. And the onus is now on government to deliver. To provide the systems, the reassurance and the clear public messaging that will allow this to happen safely.

From the earliest days of my leadership, I’ve said the government need to plan for an exit strategy. A coherent plan to bring the country together. My fear now is that we have an exit, but without a strategy. The Prime Minister can do rhetoric – he started this pandemic saying Britain was “ready to take off its Clark Kent spectacles and leap into the phone booth and emerge with its cloak flowing as the supercharged champion”. But he can’t govern. And his failure to plan, to act quickly and decisively, to take the right decisions at the right time, has held Britain back. Whether on protective equipment, care homes or testing.

As a result: those at the frontline have too often lacked the power and resources they need. Nowhere is this truer than in local government. After a decade of cuts, the coronavirus crisis and the government’s inaction have created a perfect storm. Councils are faced with much higher costs for key services such as social care. And much lower revenues through falls in areas such as business rates. As a result, you’ve estimated that councils now face a blackhole of around £10bn. And a report last week showed eight in ten face councils cutting services or section 144 notices and effective bankruptcy.

This isn’t party political – Conservative councils and Labour councils face the same problems. And as you know better than anyone, this would have real effects on the services we all rely on. It could mean further cuts to social care, fewer police officers – it could mean streetlights going on later and going off earlier. It could mean libraries, gyms and community centres staying closed: the places that give meaning and character to our communities. I’ve raised this with the Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s Questions for the last two weeks. But – as you might have seen – I haven’t had many answers. Or at least coherent ones. In fact, I’m not sure the Prime Minister has understood the scale of the problem local councils are facing, or the immediacy. I’m also not sure he understands how central local authorities will be in the next phase of this crisis and in preventing a second spike.

That’s why I called last week at PMQs for councils to given much clearer guidance and new powers to enforce local lockdowns if needed. Again, rather than take this seriously and put a plan in proper plan in place, the PM ignored it. And when the MP for Hove – Peter Kyle – warned that seaside towns and councils could be unable to cope with people rushing to beaches or parks in the summer, the PM said he should simply “show some guts and determination”. Two days later, 500,000 people crowded onto Bournemouth beach. And the local council had no choice but to declare a major incident.

As we begin to emerge from this stage of the crisis, we need much stronger and more focused leadership. And we need to build a new relationship between national and local government, to end the over-centralisation of power and resources in Westminster, to push it much closer to local communities. Part of that is empowering local government. Councillors are at the frontline of this crisis. They are often the first to see where national government is going wrong. Yet too often they are ignored, and too often central government is too slow to respond. We need to change that.

Under my leadership, we are already giving local government a bigger part in Labour politics. We have brilliant former local government leaders like Jim McMahon and Steve Reed in the shadow cabinet. Nick Forbes joins my weekly shadow cabinet meetings to ensure the voice of local government is in the room whenever decisions are being made. And we’ve ensured that every member of the Shadow Cabinet has been partnered with a local government leader. And while we’re been out of power for far too long nationally, in towns and cities across the UK Labour is changing people’s lives through our mayors and councillors.

But my commitment to local government doesn’t just exist in opposition. A Labour government would win power in order to hand it back to the nations, regions, cities and towns across our country. We would give local government a much bigger say over investment and services – not through plans devised by someone in an office on Whitehall, but ones created and rooted in communities, so that they truly serve the people. We would put local government, its power and its innovation, straight at the heart of Westminster by replacing the House of Lords with a democratic second chamber representing the nations and regions of the UK. And we would give councillors, communities and people on the front line in our public services a bigger say over the decisions that affect them. Because at the heart of the broken trust in national politics and politicians is a feeling that we aren’t listening. That we don’t care. That we don’t understand. Listen to Boris Johnson at Prime Ministers’ Question each week, and you can understand why! But working with you, we want to prove this wrong, and truly empower local communities.