No statutory footing or multi-year funding for local resilience

The whole-of-society resilience approach rests on non-statutory strategy. Local Resilience Forums lack legal personality and are funded through fragmented, short-term, non-ring-fenced pots, and the 2025 plan promises a funding review without a multi-year settlement. No national Chief Resilience Officer exists, only local ones, despite repeated calls from the Lords Risk Committee, the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, the National Preparedness Commission and CLTR. The statutory duties under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 are not reviewed until 2027.

Local responders carry the front line of every emergency and plan year to year on soft money with no legal standing. Without statutory duties and durable funding, resilience stays the junior partner, cut first under fiscal pressure.

A National Resilience Act giving the forums legal standing and statutory duties, a multi-year ring-fenced local resilience settlement, and a national Chief Resilience Officer at Deputy National Security Adviser level.

// State-led: Instrument: National Resilience Act giving LRFs legal standing, multi-year ring-fenced settlement and a national Chief Resilience Officer.

Front-line responders lack legal standing and durable money and get cut first, and the live funding review plus the 2004 Act's 2027 duties review opens a real window.