Local Government ExplainedParty Conference Season 2026: what it means for local government
LGIU’s Partnerships Team reflects on the key messages from party conference season, exploring issues from the parties’ differing approaches to housing and planning to the impact of paused local government reorganisation and what it all means for councils.
As your LGIU Partnerships Team, we headed off to the party conferences this year to give you – our LGIU councils – a wrap-up of what you need to know and what it means for local government.
Party conference season is where each party gives the clearest indications on where they want to take local government. Additionally, this year’s party conferences were the first under Prime Minister Andy Burnham, and it put councils closer to the centre of national politics than at any point in recent memory.
What struck us most is that all five parties put councils at the centre of their housing and planning offers, but they want very different things from them. Additionally, one decision hung over the whole season: the government’s decision on 7 September to pause local government reorganisation and launch a review. That came just after the Reform Party conference and before all the others. It came up in almost every room we were in.
We expected Rewiring the State (following the Cabinet Office statement in July) to set the backdrop for this year’s conferences. However, it was overshadowed by LGR and didn’t feature as strongly as we would have expected. It came up most at the Labour Conference, where Angela Rayner referenced Rewiring from the main stage. Even there, the question we kept hearing from attendees was what is local government’s role is in a rewired state. Outside Labour, conversations were framed around devolution and mayors instead. Additionally, conference season gave us plenty to feed into LGIU’s shadow white paper (launched last week here), which we have been developing in partnership with LGIU councils since September.
Reform UK
Birmingham | 3–5 September
Reform opened the season in Birmingham with their main offer for councils being the Planning Teal Paper, which is out for consultation until 31 December. It would scrap national housing targets and let councils decide their own greenfield needs. On brownfield sites, CIL, Section 106, affordable housing requirements and biodiversity measures would be removed. Additionally, local plans would be capped at five years and stripped of local policy, and spatial development strategies, including the London Plan, would be abolished.
The party argues this would speed up delivery and cut costs, although housebuilders have warned that removing targets could slow building. For councils, the key questions are who would coordinate housing and infrastructure across council boundaries, and how the schools, roads and GP surgeries currently funded by developer contributions would be paid for.
Liberal Democrats
Brighton | 19–22 September
At the Lib Dem conference in Brighton there was a strong emphasis on moving power away from central departments, including breaking up the Treasury’s top-down approach, to give councils and regional leaders more control over local growth, skills and public services. Fringe sessions also highlighted the weight of adult and children’s social care on council budgets, with calls for policies such as free personal care. For councils, conference backed announcements included targets for 150,000 social rent homes a year, council-set affordable housing, council borrowing to build and local powers to end right to buy.
Ed Davey framed his speech as a fight against the populist right, arguing that public services too often feel done to people rather than with them. His announcements included a £15,000 personal allowance, rejoining the EU single market and an international AI safety agency. The allowance would be funded by a growth dividend from closer EU ties, which depends on negotiations that have not yet happened.
Wider themes across the conference included rural communities and the lack of infrastructure support, opposition to the far right, AI regulation and safeguarding, children and young people, including NEETs, patient-centred healthcare and climate change. Additionally, frustration about LGR came through strongly, with attendees unsure whether reorganisation was paused or ended.
Labour
Liverpool | 27–30 September
Labour’s conference in Liverpool was Andy Burnham’s first as Prime Minister, and devolution was at its centre. Labour councillors at the local government rally reflected on heavy losses in May, and Local Government minister Jim McMahon defended the LGR pause, saying each county’s proposals would be reviewed to make sure they are robust.
The most significant announcement for councils was a national care service, funded partly by changes to the triple lock. Burnham acknowledged he may pay a political price for this, and the funding detail is still to come. Adult social care is the largest pressure on council budgets, so reform could affect council finances more than devolution or LGR.
On housing, Burnham promised the biggest council housebuilding programme in decades and an end to right to buy on new council homes, while Angela Rayner announced new council powers over empty homes and homelessness referrals.
Additionally, Ministers set out new mayoral powers over water companies and moves towards public control of energy and water, which raise questions about who would manage these assets locally and how they would be funded.
Attendees were also asking whether power is flowing to mayors rather than councils. A devolution white paper is expected in the Autumn.
Green Party
Brighton | 2–4 October
The Greens’ conference in Brighton put housing affordability and the cost of living at the centre, with Green-run councils such as Bristol and Stroud held up as examples of local housing delivery. It took place alongside the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, so Zack Polanski gave his leader’s speech on the opening day and then left to campaign, along with many members.
In that speech, Polanski proposed a three-year emergency cap on private rent rises, limited to the lowest of CPI, wage growth or 2%, alongside a national fair rents guarantee and council homebuilding at scale. Ministers have argued against rent controls, and their impact would depend on design and how they interact with housing supply. Enforcement would most likely fall to councils. Green delegates also backed moving fiscal targets towards environmental and social outcomes, and sessions covered climate resilience after this summer’s extreme weather and concerns about data centres and AI.
Conservatives
Birmingham | 4–7 October
The Conservatives closed party season in Birmingham, with Kemi Badenoch’s closing speech setting out the party’s contrast with the government. For local government, the party is developing a new offer. Shadow communities secretary Katie Lam said mayors would not suit every area, including rural counties, and launched a project to define a new vision for local government. Shadow minister David Simmonds said this would include deciding what councils should stop doing, ahead of a planned repeal bill to reduce the role of the state.
Youth unemployment was a major focus, with around 1.25 million young people not in education, employment or training. On housing, the party proposed a single levy to replace Section 106 and CIL, alongside scrapping the Future Homes Standard and reducing affordable housing requirements. The party argues this would lower costs and speed up building, while Centre for London has warned it could mean fewer affordable homes and less infrastructure funding. Additionally, fringe sessions covered fiscal devolution, pressures on retail and pharmacies, town centre safety and primary care.
What it means for local government
Housing routes differ sharply. Reform and the Conservatives proposed major changes to Section 106 and CIL, while Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens focused on council housebuilding and affordability. Each route would affect how local infrastructure and affordable housing are funded.
Care reform could be the biggest change of all. A national care service would reshape the largest item in council budgets, with much of the detail still to come.
Devolution is moving quickly. A devolution white paper is expected in the Autumn, and the parties set out different views on the role of mayors, strategic authorities and councils.
Young people and AI cut across parties. Young people, including NEETs and youth unemployment, and AI both came up across all five conferences. Councils already run much of the support for young people, from youth services to skills and employment programmes, and are increasingly using AI in their own services, so national policy in both areas is likely to land locally.
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