LGA demands end to laws requiring councils to advertise statutory notices

Town hall chiefs have called on the government to scrap the legislation which requires local authorities to advertise planning notices in third party publications, saying that councils should not have to prop up local newspapers.

The Local Government Association said the requirement would cost £200m over the next five years if it remained in place. “For the same money town halls could fund the construction of 2,180 new council homes, pay the annual salaries of another 3,000 care workers or employ an extra 2,000 refuse collectors to empty people’s bins,” it added.

The association’s research suggests that an average council has to pay its local newspaper £105,000 per year to print public notices which are published online and circulated in council newsletters. One unnamed local authority paid out £608,000 last year alone, the LGA said.

“Current rules mean that council tax payers are propping up the struggling newspaper industry to the tune of £40m per year – contributing 8% of UK local newspapers’ annual profits,” the association claimed.

Baroness Margaret Eaton, chairman of the LGA said: “The government has already instructed town halls to save money by advertising job vacancies online rather than in the press. It is contradictory to then force councils to continue the expensive and unnecessary practice of paying millions of pounds per year to advertise planning notices. This is money which should be spent protecting the vital frontline services on which people rely, not propping up the profits of the newspaper industry.

“It is important that these statutory notices are accessible to as many people as possible but in this day and age councils can reach far more people for a fraction of the cost by putting the information online or distributing it directly.”

The LGA insisted that it still believed that local newspapers serve a vital democratic role in their areas and act as the lifeblood of local communities.

Baroness Eaton said: “The press plays a vital role in local democracy by scrutinising the goings on at town halls up and down the country. Councils recognise this and many have been proactive in supporting their local newspapers in other ways.

“These rules stem from an age when the local newspaper was the cheapest and most effective way of communicating on a mass scale – but in the 21st century that is no longer the case. In these times of austerity councils can no longer afford to prop up the newspaper industry and be held to ransom by legislation designed for a bygone age.”