Local Councillors: Recruitment, Retention and Well-being

Baroness Shah Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2026 Grand Committee

[Baroness Shah (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate, and I thank the noble Lord, Lord Forbes, for bringing it forward. I declare that I am the head of the Labour office at the Local Government Association and I have been a councillor for 12 years. I have literally just come from the LGA this morning where we were discussing this very topic.

I am making my remarks with immense personal sadness that we are having to have this debate at all. I will not lie: following the recent elections, there have been moments when I have shed tears about the abuse that people who I call friends have had to face in these local elections. That in 2026 we must stand here and discuss the abuse, harassment and intimidation of elected councillors is a damning indictment of where our public discourse has arrived.

Councillors are not distant figures in Whitehall. They are neighbours; they run food banks; they sit on planning committees and housing panels. They are the most accessible tier of our democracy, and that accessibility is now being weaponised against them. I have examples from councillors and candidates I know personally: cars set alight, sustained stalking campaigns, a candidate punched and knocked out recently on the doorstep. Just an hour ago I heard of a 74 year-old councillor in Plymouth being attacked in a stairwell. These are not abstractions; these are the lived realities of people who put their names forward to serve their communities.

I come here today with some solutions. Three things must change. First, our institutions must do consistently better. Operation Ford was a welcome step, but it cannot be a one-off. Returning officers and monitoring officers at local authorities must be properly equipped, trained and empowered to act when elected members face threats. The Electoral Commission must play a more active role in setting and enforcing standards of conduct around elections. The Home Office must develop a far deeper understanding of the specific nature of this threat. Without that, enforcement will always lag behind the harm. I welcome the recent government proposals and action on councillors’ addresses being public on websites.

Secondly, we cannot have this conversation without confronting social media. Misinformation spreads at scale and abuse is industrialised. Co-ordinated campaigns of harassment can be mounted in minutes or hours, targeting individuals with a ferocity that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. This is not only a safety issue but a democratic one. It puts people off standing for public office, and the evidence is clear that women are disproportionately targeted. We need robust, enforceable regulation of platforms, and the Online Safety Act was a start.

Thirdly, perhaps most uncomfortably, we must look in the mirror. Culture flows from the top. When politicians at the highest level trade in contempt, when opponents are not just wrong but become enemies and when inflammatory language is rewarded with column inches, we should not be surprised that it filters down. We have a responsibility—every one of us—to model the public discourse that we want to see. Just because we have the right to say something, it does not mean that we should. Local democracy depends on ordinary people being willing to put their names on a ballot. We are making that harder and more dangerous. We can and we must do better.

Social Housing Bill [HL]

Baroness Shah Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 1st June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Shah (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a privilege to follow the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, and although I may not agree with all his points, I certainly respect his experience and views. I start by declaring that I work for the Local Government Association. I support the Bill, not only as a Member of this House but as someone who has spent years working at the coalface of housing need as a councillor who led on regeneration and planning for eight years, becoming one of London’s largest housebuilders. I welcome the comments made by the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, and the noble Lord, Lord Best, on the importance and value of regeneration.

I welcome the Bill and other measures that the Government have implemented to speed up housebuilding to address the housing crisis, including the £39 billion for social housing. Social housing is a foundation on which people build lives. It is where children grow up and go to school; it is where families such as mine put down roots and where communities are built. When we allow social housing stock to erode, we are not simply making a balance sheet error, we are narrowing life chances. As mentioned by my noble friend the Minister, the numbers are stark. It is a source of shame that more than 175,000 children are in temporary accommodation. More than 1.3 million households across England are currently on waiting lists for a social home. We simply do not have enough homes.

The temporary accommodation bill alone should give us pause for concern. Government figures show that council spending on temporary accommodation reached £2.8 billion in 2024-25. This is not just a housing argument; it is a fiscal one. Research by the National Housing Federation and Shelter found that the government funding needed to build the social homes we require would be fully paid back within 11 years through savings on housing benefit, NHS costs and homelessness expenditure, and additional tax receipts from construction employment.

If the case is so clear, why have we not built? I know from direct experience why councils find this so difficult. Barriers such as the state of the housing revenue account, the cost of public borrowing and workforce shortages have all been challenges to councils which want to build, and I welcome the steps the Government have taken to start to address these. Then there is right to buy, which the Bill rightly addresses. Right to buy was introduced in 1980, and today there are more than 131,000 fewer affordable homes than there were at the start, driven largely by the failure to replace homes under that scheme. The measures in the Bill to extend eligibility to 10 years, exempt newly built stock for 35 years, and provide a perpetual right for first refusal on resale are genuine improvements and I welcome them wholeheartedly.

There is, of course, a rich irony in the fact that those on the opposite Benches who argue most loudly for the right for every family to own their own home have, at the local level, spent years frustrating the very development that would give families somewhere to live in the first place. We have all watched the pattern: support for housing in principle but objection to housing in practice—a planning application in a leafy ward that somehow never quite gets backed. The former Government removed mandatory housing targets and saw new approvals collapse accordingly in precisely those areas where housing need was greatest.

We on this side of the House believe that you cannot claim to support housebuilding while blocking homes at every planning meeting. This Bill is for those who are willing to follow this through. Addressing supply must meet demand. I offer two suggestions. The first concerns a replacement ratio. Parliamentary scrutiny has previously found that the system should ensure that any home sold via right to buy is replaced like for like, with local authorities retaining all receipts to enable them to do so. A one-for-one replacement principle could be built into the framework, even implemented flexibly over a defined period, to give councils and communities the assurance that every sale is matched by a new beginning.

The second concerns the flexibility of right-to-buy receipts. I raise this as someone who has seen at first hand how the current rules interact with the real complexity of delivering housing at scale. A major regeneration scheme—the kind that generally transforms a community, delivering hundreds of homes alongside schools, green spaces and new streets—may take five, seven or even 10 years from conception to completion. Planning processes can be lengthy and viability assessments contested. Development timelines are not solely within a council’s control. Restrictions on the use of right-to-buy receipts have been identified as a key barrier to council housebuilding and, although temporary flexibilities have been introduced at various points, they have not provided the certainty or permanence that councils need to plan with confidence.

When receipts must be spent within fixed timelines or face clawback, councils are pushed to smaller, faster projects that may not represent the best long-term value, rather than larger, more complex schemes that transform communities. Allowing councils permanent flexibility to combine right-to-buy receipts with other government grants and to spend receipts at a timescale that reflects local development realities, particularly when councils can demonstrate that receipts are committed to a named scheme, could be a way forward.

This is a good Bill. It is overdue and it is needed. But good housing policy is not made in this Chamber alone; it is made when legislation is matched by resources, by long-term partnership between central and local government, and by a shared willingness at every level—local, national, urban, suburban and rural—to say yes to the homes that our country needs. The National Housing Federation and Shelter estimate that 90,000 homes a year are needed to meet demand. This Bill is another step which this Government are taking. Every measure that we take in this House to bring those homes a little closer is a measure worth taking. I look forward to engaging with this Bill and I commend it to the House.

Local Government Reorganisation

Baroness Shah Excerpts

Wednesday 25th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for recognising the way in which local government responds to things such as this—and I know that colleagues in electoral services and on the political side of local government will do what they need to do and be ready for these elections. As I said, they are more than used to responding to very short-notice elections, including snap general elections; they work very well in those circumstances. In my experience, councils’ electoral services departments are extraordinarily efficient and effective, so I welcome his comments in that regard.

The costs are now being assessed, although I cannot give the noble Lord a figure at the moment. I am afraid that that will have to wait.

[Baroness Shah (Lab)]

I declare an interest as the head of the Labour office at the Local Government Association. As my noble friend will know, councils of all colours have worked together with communities to put forward proposals, knowing the opportunities and benefits that local government reorganisation will bring. Whatever the outcome of the elections in May, can my noble friend the Minister provide reassurance to those councils and communities on the timeline of the local government reorganisation?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

There is no dimming of the Government’s ambition around devolution and local government reorganisation. We are pushing on with the agenda. I thank my noble friend for recognising how well councils have worked together. I have been in meetings with many groups of councils, and they have said to me that this has got people talking together. They may have had a falling out 20 years ago and they could not even remember what it was about, but having to sit around the table and work on these proposals has been a really positive experience right across local government. I welcome that and think that it bodes well for the future. Certainly, the Government’s intention is to carry on with both the local government reorganisation and the devolution process.

Donations to Political Parties

Baroness Shah Excerpts

Thursday 12th February 2026 Grand Committee

[Baroness Shah (Lab)]

My Lords, I welcome this debate on donations to political parties. It is right that we examine how our political system is funded and that we do so with seriousness and transparency. I welcome the Government’s announcement today on the Representation of the People Bill and, in particular, measures to protect candidates, campaigners and staff from intimidation or abuse. At its heart, this debate is about strengthening our democracy and rebuilding public trust and about ensuring that participation in our democratic life is meaningful and fair. That is not only about money; it is about participation and franchise. It is in that spirit I slightly change tack from some of the focus around funding and speak in support of extending the franchise to 16 and 17 year-olds.

Young people today are growing up in a context markedly different from that which shaped many of us in this House. They face existential challenges that are not abstract or distant but immediate and personal. Climate change, housing insecurity and economic and global uncertainty threaten not only their prosperity but their sense of future. Yet many feel that they have little agency over the decisions taken here in Parliament that will define those futures. Extending the vote to 16 and 17 year-olds offers elected representatives a powerful incentive to engage seriously with this cohort. It encourages political parties, candidates and institutions to speak with young people, not merely about them. It creates space for dialogue, political education and a politics that listens as well as instructs.

The evidence supports this approach. Research by the Electoral Commission shows that nearly three-quarters of young people believe that politics should be taught more in schools and colleges. While many understandably encounter political content through social media, they are far more likely to trust the information that they learn about politics in an educational setting. Yet many young people still do not feel confident about voting; they want to understand how voting works, why it matters and how to make informed choices.

Crucially, the same research tells us that, when young people understand how politics works and why it is important, they are far more likely to get involved and perhaps tackle the issues that the debate has already raised. That is why I particularly welcome the focus on civic education throughout schooling. Extending the franchise alongside strengthened civic education is not a leap of faith; it is a coherent and evidence-based approach to democratic renewal.

Young people today are asking for the same recognition. They are not disengaged because they do not care; many are disengaged because they care deeply and do not see their concerns reflected in decision-making or accessibility to politics. Granting them the vote is not a cure-all, but it is a meaningful and practical step in affirming that their stake in society is real. As legislators, it is incumbent on us to strengthen, not narrow, the foundations of our democracy. Engaging young people fosters habits of participation, accountability and civic responsibility that endure across a lifetime. It reinforces the principle that democracy is not only something that we inherit but something that we must renew.

Extending the franchise is an act of confidence in our young people and in our democratic system to grow stronger through inclusion. In a debate rightly focused on trust and democratic integrity, I urge the House to see this measure as an opportunity that we should embrace.

English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

Baroness Shah Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 4th February 2026 Grand Committee

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords, this is a very interesting group of amendments. I look forward to the responses of the Minister to the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, who made quite a number of important points, and to the noble Baroness, Lady Freeman of Steventon.

I just want to say something in relation to Amendment 131 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, and others, including myself. I do not want to repeat what he has said—indeed, in debates on previous Bills we have had long discussions on the issue of chief planning officers—but I hope that the Minister will take this very seriously. Let me explain a further reason why I think Ministers need to do that.

There are several areas of competence in the Bill for mayors. Four of them require planning advice. One is transport and local infrastructure, a second is housing and strategic planning, a third is economic development and regeneration and a fourth is environment and climate change. Each of those will have either an elected member or a commissioner leading, as it were—I will not say “in charge”, because commissioners have to report to the mayor, and the strategic authority would be making the relevant decisions.

The point is that in any one person, to have the professional capacity in each of those four areas of competence that I have identified, you have to have professional expertise. I do not see in either the Bill or the Explanatory Notes exactly how that is going to be provided. The noble Lord, Lord Lansley, made an unanswerable case for there being a chief planning officer who brings all these things together within a local planning authority and within the strategic authority. No doubt we will come back to this on Report, but I hope that the Government understand its importance. If you are trying to drive growth, you have to have professional expertise in place to do it and I suggest that chief planning officers are one of those positions.

[Baroness Shah (Lab)]

My Lords, I apologise for not having been here previously. I was not a Member of the House when the Bill first came to the House, so I could not speak on it then, but I would like to speak on it today. I will set out some context about my understanding of planning and where I come from. I was eight years as a planning lead in my local council, as the regeneration and planning cabinet member. I should also point out that I am an employee of the Local Government Association and I am still a councillor, so my remarks will be based on my own opinions and experience.

I will speak on Amendment 126, and I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, for explaining her position on her amendment. I want to challenge that perception with my experience. I do not think this amendment is needed in actual practice. The points around democratic accountability and community involvement are based within the planning system already and the planning reforms that have come through. Good local plans should have involvement of the community and are democratically voted on in a full council chamber. Should an applicant come to a local council with a planning application and in good faith follow those policies, there should be some safeguards around making sure that those plans are upheld and seen through in development coming forward.

In my experience in London, in the eight years that I was planning lead, not one application needed to be called in or used by the Mayor of London to challenge what the local council had done, because we made sure that the developer or the applicant was able to follow the planning policies. So it is important to note that, in a good planning process, the local plan should be where the heavy lifting is done through community engagement and democratic accountability.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I have added my name to Amendment 131 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, also supported by the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, and the noble Lord, Lord Shipley. The amendment requires local planning authorities, separately or jointly, to appoint one qualified and experienced person to be chief planner. It would give due recognition to the officer responsible for planning matters in each local authority, as promoted by the Royal Town Planning Institute—I declare that I am an honorary member of the institute. A very similar amendment was debated in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill last October. At the conclusion of that debate, the Minister said that she would

“keep this issue under review as we progress with further reforms to the planning system”.—[Official Report, 27/10/25; col. 1199.]

Our hope is that she will now be able to accept this proposition.

The case for a chief planner seems an excellent one. It would be a boost to the morale of those working in local planning authorities. It would represent an acknowledgement by the Government that planning needs to be recognised, as it once was, as a very prominent part of local government. When we debated this matter last year, it was noted that identifying the chief planner role is now more significant than it was following the Government’s action to achieve a national planning scheme of delegation for planning decision-making. Decisions on whether a planning application should be taken to the planning committee or dealt with by officers alone will depend on the judgment of two individuals: the elected member who chairs the planning committee and the chief planning officer. This important responsibility underlines the need for an enhanced status for the planning officer at the helm.

In preparation for the debate on this issue during the passage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, I spoke to the chief planner for Glasgow City Council, where legislation already confers a statutory status on the chief planning officer, accompanied by guidance from the Scottish Government on the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, skills and experience required. Glasgow’s chief planner told me of the importance of having one fully qualified person holding the position of chief planner, not least in enabling everyone to identify the key person responsible for planning matters. Indeed, events are now being organised that bring together chief planners from across Scotland, now that it is clear who shares this common identity. I spoke to an experienced planner in Wales who told me of hopes for a similar measure for Wales to that addressed by this arrangement. I strongly support this amendment as part of the devolution package for England.