The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, visited Harrogate today to attend the final day of the Local Government Association conference.

Mr Sunak, who is the Conservative MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire, is the latest high-profile politician to make an appearance at the three-day event at Harrogate Convention Centre.

It’s the biggest event on the local government calendar and has brought about 1,500 delegates to Harrogate.

On Tuesday, levelling up secretary Michael Gove gave the keynote address. His Labour Party shadow, Lisa Nandy, has also among the speakers.

Yesterday, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey was in town for the conference and spoke to the Stray Ferret about the party’s ambitions in Harrogate.

Children at New Park Primary Academy also had a surprise visit this afternoon from secretary of state for education, Nadhim Zahawi.

Harrogate Convention Centre tweeted some pictures of Mr Sunak chatting with delegates today.

Day 3 of #LGAConf22 and among the 1,600+ delegates gathered in #Harrogate to debate important issues and make decisions on local public services is @RishiSunak #localgov @LGAcomms pic.twitter.com/WfmE25O5LA

— Harrogate Convention Centre (@HgtConventions) June 30, 2022

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Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove was the main speaker at today’s opening day of the Local Government Association annual conference in Harrogate.

The three-day gathering, which is the biggest event on the local government calendar, has brought about 1,500 delegates to Harrogate.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey and Lisa Nandy, Labour’s Shadow Secretary for Levelling Up, are among tomorrow’s listed speakers.

Michael Gove, waiting to go on stage.

Mr Gove used the occasion to announce the government will move to two-year funding settlements for local authorities and will create an Office for Local Government, which will scrutinise councils’ performance.

But the event, which will see break-out events take place at some hotels, is also an opportunity to showcase Harrogate.

Shortly before Mr Gove’s speech, Cllr Graham Swift, Harrogate Borough Council’s deputy leader, took to the stage for a five-minute plenary speech in which he implored delegates to “take the opportunity to see why Harrogate is such a great place to live, work and keep visiting”.

Cllr Graham Swift promotes the Harrogate district.

Cllr Swift added:

“We want your visit to Harrogate to be extraordinary. We hope you’ll join us by enjoying the god given joys of our town.”

Mr Gove took the time afterwards to meet Cllr Victoria Oldham, the Harrogate borough’s last mayor.

Michael Gove and Cllr Victoria Oldham, the Harrogate borough mayor.

The packed programme of events includes a 45-minute walking tour of Harrogate at 11.30am tomorrow led by members of Destination Harrogate, which is the council’s tourism organisation.

The Old Swan hotel will host a chief executives’ drinks reception tomorrow night while the DoubleTree by Hilton Harrogate Majestic will host dinners for the Labour and Liberal Democrats.

Tomorrow will also see Harrogate’s Royal Host the LGA LGBTQ+ disco.

Tonight, the Crown Hotel will host an event on local authority enterprises.

Delegates arriving today.

LGA chairman, Cllr James Jamieson told delegates today:

“What a pleasure it is to join together – in person – in such a beautiful, historic town. That has been voted a number of times “the happiest place to live in Britain”, and am sure this will rub off on us over the next few days.”

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Some big names in UK politics including Michael Gove, Ed Davey, Nadim Zahawi and Lisa Nandy will be in Harrogate this week for the Local Government Association (LGA) conference.

The LGA is the national membership body for local authorities. At its annual conference, delegates debate issues affecting councils across the country such as housing, social care and the environment.

Mr Gove, who is secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, will be giving the keynote address at the conference which takes place from June 28-30 at Harrogate Convention Centre.

Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow secretary of state, will also be speaking. As will Nadhim Zahawi, secretary of state for education and Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey.

Jackie Weaver, who became an unlikely internet star of a viral parish council meeting during the covid pandemic, will also be in town to address delegates.

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The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, is to visit one of the party’s target constituencies — Harrogate and Knaresborough — next week.

Mr Davey will be in Harrogate on Wednesday to meet local members and speak at the Local Government Association conference, which takes place at Harrogate Convention Centre from June 28-30.

The local party is in buoyant mood following last month’s local election results, which saw it become the largest party on North Yorkshire County Council in the constituency area. However, the Conservatives retained overall control of the council.

Nationally, the Lib Dems overturned a 24,000 Tory majority to win yesterday’s Tiverton and Honiton by-election.

David Goode, chair of Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrats, said:

“He will meet with members and will want to talk about the fantastic Tiverton and Honiton success where we overturned a massive majority.

“It’s also a good opportunity to share our own successes with him and our plans for the general election.”

The Conservative Andrew Jones has been the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough since 2010 and has won four elections. He succeeded Liberal Democrat Phil Willis.

In the 2019 general election, Mr Jones won 29,962 votes, beating Lib Dem candidate Judith Rogerson by almost 10,000 votes.

The Lib Dems did gain a 12-point swing on 2017, which largely came at the expense of the Labour Party.

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Mr Goode said the Lib Dem’s prospective parliamentary candidate could be announced as soon as next month, with the selection process currently underway.

Last week, former candidate Ms Rogerson ruled herself out for personal reasons.

Mr Goode added:

“There are rumours of a potential autumn election and we want to be ready.

“Andrew Jones is going to be a worried man. It looks like it’s becoming an unrecoverable position for the Conservative government.”

Harrogate Borough Council staff should receive a minimum £2,000 salary increase, according to trade unions.

Unison, GMB and Unite today formally lodged the 2022/23 pay claim for local government workers.

The claim also called for a covid recognition payment, a national minimum agreement on homeworking policies for all councils, the introduction of a home working allowance and a reduction in the working week to 35 hours.

It is the start of a negotiation process with the Local Government Association, the national membership body for local authorities. The claim is for all council workers in England and Wales.

David Houlgate, secretary of the Harrogate local government branch of Unison, said council employees had seen their pay reduced by 27% in real terms over the last decade.

He added:

“Councils can’t get staff and they can’t keep staff because of pay. They need to wake up and smell the coffee.

“It is impacting services, such as swimming pools being open for reduced hours, bins not being collected as often, streets not being cleaned and streetlights not being fixed.

“I’ve worked for the local council for 25 years and I’ve never known it to be as bad as this.”

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Mr Houlgate said staff morale was poor and the looming abolition of Harrogate Borough Council had created extra uncertainty but the key issue was pay and recruitment. He added:

“If local councils can’t be competitive with other employers we are not going to overcome the recruitment problem.”

Responding to the unions’ claims, Cllr Sian Timoney, chair of the National Employers at the Local Government Association, said:

“We will be consulting with councils during June to seek their views which will inform the National Employers’ response to the unions.

“Local government continues to face significant financial challenges, which became more acute during the pandemic, having lost more than £15 billion in government funding since 2010.

“As well as rising inflation, cost of living, energy and fuel prices, the forecast increases to the National Living Wage also presents a significant cost to local government that will put further pressure on council budgets.”

Harrogate Borough Council has yet to recruit any covid marshals, the authority revealed today.

The government’s new ‘rule of six’ came into force today, forbidding social gatherings of more than six people except in certain circumstances.

Ministers have called for local councils to recruit teams of marshals to monitor compliance.

But many local authorities, including HBC, have yet to do so, saying they need more details about the role and funding.

A council spokesman said:

“The government hasn’t published any guidance to local authorities about the role of the marshals, the powers they will have nor how contact tracing at hospitality businesses will be enforced.

“Until we’ve had the detail, we can’t plan for how marshals may be used in the district.”

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Nesil Caliskan, chair of the Local Government Association’s safer and stronger communities board, said the government’s announcement had caused confusion among local authorities and called for “urgent clarity” from ministers.

Ms Caliskan added:

“It is right that councils will be able to choose whether marshals are the best way to manage covid risks in their local areas.

“However, without additional funding to support this proposal, many councils are likely to have to prioritise other activity.

“Even if marshals were rolled out in great numbers, they will not have enforcement powers so it is important that residents do not expect councils to be able to act when they cannot.”

Police warning

Chief Inspector Charlotte Bloxham, silver lead for the North Yorkshire Police covid response, urged people to take personal responsibility for following government guidance. She added that breaches of the regulations should be reported using the online form on North Yorkshire Police’s website.

Ms Bloxham warned, however, that demand for police services was now back at pre-covid levels. She said:

“We will continue to follow our usual approach of engaging, explaining and encouraging people to act responsibly and only resorting to enforcement when absolutely necessary. “