Brexit: council leaders call for key role in replacing EU laws

Local government must be given a ‘seat around the table’ when it comes to deciding how to replace EU laws, council leaders have insisted.

The Local Government Association (LGA) said councils would be central to bringing communities back together after the EU referendum campaign split the country in two, but they must also be part of the negotiation team.

In a statement following the UK’s decision to leave the union, the LGA said: ‘EU laws and regulations impact on many council services, such as waste, employment, health and safety, consumer protection and trading and environmental standards.

‘There cannot be an assumption that power over these services is simply transferred from Brussels to Westminster.

‘If services are delivered locally, the power over how to run them should rest locally too.

‘Decades of centralised control over funding and services