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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to encourage high quality candidates with (a) public and (b) private sector experience to become councillors.

Local councillors play a vital role in providing leadership, a voice for local communities and in overseeing key public services. So it is important that political parties and the local government sector encourage high calibre candidates from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences to put themselves forward to become local councillor candidates. The Local Government Association runs a programme to increase the diverse pool of talent from which councillors are elected to serve in local government.