LGA Responds To New Tiers Announcement

Responding to the Health and Social Care Secretary’s statement on the new three-tier restrictions being introduced for different areas across England, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:

“Councils continue to lead local communities through this pandemic and will be working hard to ensure residents and businesses understand and are able to follow the rules they face.

“The social and economic cost of restrictions have been significant and it is good that these restrictions will be regularly reviewed, which we would expect to involve genuine consultation with local leaders. Councils still need clarity on how they can move between tier alert levels and local areas need to be reassured that successful work to tackle infection rates will result in an easing of restrictions as quickly as possible.

“Proper plans are also needed for how government will work with local areas to help scale up successful local contact tracing efforts with better data sharing to allow positive tests to be followed up, facilitate targeted testing at scale and coordinate the roll-out of any COVID-19 vaccine.

“The battle against this virus is far from over. It is vital that we all follow the new rules we face, get ourselves tested when needed, self-isolate if positive and share our contacts on request.”