Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with the Local Government Association on training for councillors.

The Department works closely with the Local Government Association (LGA) on a host of issues and through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), provides £21 million of funding to the LGA to deliver a number of activities. Included in this is training and development offers for councillors, for example, the LGA have a target of providing development opportunities for at least 700 councillors and also run a more tailored development offer for ambitious councillors. This MoU is reviewed formally on a quarterly basis by officials and the LGA.