MHCLG letter to Chief Executives on Delivery and Recovery of Local Authority Regulatory Services calling on LAs to "support the ongoing need for you to prioritise activity based on local need and intelligence".

In the letter, Julia Sweeney, Director Local Government and Communities said:

"I wrote to you in January 2021 to introduce the role of the Regulatory Task and Finish group, with senior representatives from central and local government working together to coordinate the asks of local teams and propose recommendations to short- and long-term issues. In January, the group shared a prioritisation matrix to help manage the increased responsibilities falling on regulatory services.

The letter continues:

"With our sights set on recovery and moving towards business as usual, now is the right time to end the prioritisation outlined on 26 January. Although the formal prioritisation will end, I appreciate and support the ongoing need for you to prioritise activity based on local need and intelligence. To this end, some authorities may wish to keep the prioritisation in place locally and use it to guide their approach to backlogs and recovery (see below). Equally, I recognise that circumstances related to Covid-19 and local authority pressures are still changing at pace, and we will keep this position on the prioritisation open to review."

The prioritisation matrix indicates that the DfT are expected to start a consultation on the review of the Taxi and Private Hire Best Practice Guidance.  It states:

'The current version of the Best Practice Guidance was published in 2010 and is being updated to reflect the changes in the sector since then. The consultation will enable licensing authorities, and other stakeholders, to provide their views on the refreshed guidance.'