Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has pledged to ensure local news services for “every town, city and village” in a keynote speech to industry leaders.

Ms Nandy, whose role includes oversight of media policy, said that local news would be “more important than it has ever been” as a result of the government’s plans to devolve power away from Westminster.

Speaking at the Deloitte and Enders Analysis’ Media & Telecoms 2025 & Beyond Conference in London, she also called for a closer partnership between the BBC and local news publishers.

And she pledged to find a solution to the vexed issue of AI and copyright, amid widespread industry fears that content is being “ripped off” to train AI models.

Praising the role of local media in covering last summer’s riots, Ms Nandy, pictured, said: “Great journalism shines a light into the darkest parts of our country, holds up a mirror to those in power, and reasserts the power of the people.

“I can think of no better recent example of this than last summer, as our towns and cities were set ablaze by violent thugs.

“It was local media on the ground who countered mis- and disinformation in real time. And they told the real story, the story of our communities, who came together to defend all of us in all of our diversity and led the community fightback.

“Our national and local media is, in short, too important to fail.

“We will publish a Local Media Strategy to ensure that people in every town, city and village can access trust in news that reflects their lives as reserves better, helping them to hold local public services to account.

“As a government, we are committed to the biggest devolution of power out of Westminster and Whitehall in a generation, which will make local news and local media the most important that it has ever been.

On the BBC, the culture secretary said the corporation should be partnering rather than competing with commercial local news providers.

She said: “We need more collaboration within your sector and especially between our public service broadcasters, working together in a number of areas, particularly tackling mis- and disinformation and promoting high quality news by investing in your journalism arms, partnering more rather than competing with or undercutting local news publishers, improving media literacy by helping consumers find and recognise accurate and impartial news reporting, supporting initiatives like BBC Verify and the Local Democracy Reporting Service.”

And on AI, she added: “We are determined to find a way forward that works for the creative industry and creators, as well as the tech industries. Creators are the innovators, fundamental to our economic success in the future. And with my colleague Peter Kyle, we’re working together to find a better solution.

“The issue of AI and copyright needs to be properly considered and enforceable legislation drafted with the inclusion, involvement and experience of both creatives and technologists.”

Ms Nandy promised talks with representatives from across the creative industries to develop legislation, saying the government had “no preferred option in mind.”

Editors have previously warned that government plans to boost the adoption of AI must not undermine the journalism industry by weakening copyright laws.