Local government bodies need a plan to get the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) taken seriously at the top level of Government, a former adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned.

Dame Louise Casey suggested both chief executives' organisation Solace and the Local Government Association needed to have a ‘very sophisticated plan to get MHCLG to be taken seriously' and added that it needed to be seen as ‘not just a dating agency' to put councils in touch with other departments.