West Suffolk Council highly praised for strong progress and innovation

15 Jul 2025

West Suffolk Council has been praised for its proactive, inclusive, and forward-thinking approach in its final peer review report.

The recent progress review conducted by the Local Government Association (LGA), looked at what the council had achieved since its successful and positive Corporate Peer Challenge in July 2024.

The progress report follows the earlier review that concluded West Suffolk was a strong authority, which had good leadership and had the right priorities to meet future challenges.

The review looked at the last five to 10 years, including current and past administrations and following this an action plan was agreed to meet any recommendations that were made.

The review, carried out on 21 May 2025, found that 100 per cent of the council’s action plan has either been completed or actively progressing, with significant achievements across key areas including community engagement, sustainable growth, environmental leadership, and governance.

The progress report has concluded West Suffolk Council is achieving in terms of its recommendations:

• Community engagement: a model of co-design
• Sustainable growth: evidence-led and locally grounded
• Environmental leadership: clear path to net zero
• Governance and leadership: empowered and inclusive

The LGA peer team commended the council’s resilience, ambition, and collaborative ethos, particularly in navigating complex challenges such as local government reorganisation and devolution.

The report concluded: “West Suffolk Council continues to demonstrate a proactive, collaborative, and ambitious approach. Its investment in people and partnerships is positioning the organisation well for the future.”

In a joint statement Cllr Cliff Waterman, Leader of West Suffolk Council, Cllr Victor Lukaniuk, Independents Leader, Cllr Beccy Hopfensperger, Conservative Group Leader, Cllr David Smith, Leader of West Suffolk Progressive Alliance Grouping, said:

“This is a report any UK local government authority would be proud of and reflects the good and innovative work of past and present councillors and staff over the last 10 years. It paints a picture of a leading authority nationally that is listening and delivering for its communities and businesses with robust financial and leadership in place to meet the challenges facing councils.

“The recommendations have been very useful and helped us focus on areas that we had asked the peer review group to look at. It shows we have put the needs and ambitions of our communities, businesses and environment, at the heart of all we do and the council has the right priorities to continue to deliver a thriving West Suffolk.”
 

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