Ahead of the Labour Party Conference, Nick Forbes outlines some of the challenges for local authorities and his hopes for the party in this next phase of governnance

Labour councillors head into our annual party conference thinking about the challenges that our councils face in the year ahead, but also from a position of power. Labour in local government is delivering in power in cities and regions around the country – more than 31 million people in England and Wales have either a Labour council or a directly elected Labour mayor and are benefiting from Labour values being put into practice.