The fall out from the pandemic, a spiralling financial crisis and decades of uncertainty over local government funding means that local government budgets are under pressure like never before. It is a notoriously complex system and will take time to understand properly; as a new councillor, your first opportunity to get to grips with council finances may be through serving on a scrutiny committee.
We have picked out a few items from our huge library of local government content that we hope will provide you with inspiration, ideas or just food for thought and make you want to delve deeper into the LGIU’s local government resources.
This page is part of LGIU’s resources for new councillors.
Primer: the essentials of local government finance in England
This primer is designed to provide newly-elected councillors with a short, non-technical introduction to the main features of local government finance in England, but should also be useful to others new to local government or wanting to find out more about finance. Read this primer.
An introduction to local government finance training
Every elected councillor is responsible for ensuring that their council has effective financial governance, yet local government finance is viewed by many as difficult to get to grips with. These online training sessions are designed to provide elected councillors with a thorough grounding in the key elements of local government finance and funding across England (14 Sept) and Scotland (28 Sept).
2022-23 Scottish local government finance settlement – all you need to know
This briefing looks at the funding provided to councils through the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2022-23. It explains some of the background to the settlement; outline its main features; and, looks at why the settlement has been received with disappointment by the local government community. Read this briefing
PB or not PB: question time for participatory budgeting
Is participatory budgeting the best way to encourage public involvement in decisions? This briefing looked at how the process has been going both in Scotland and with examples from further afield. Read this briefing.
Local government finance training (lunch and learn)
These online training sessions are designed to provide elected councillors with a thorough grounding in the key elements of local government finance and funding including Understanding your council’s annual financial statements (2 Nov), annual budget and budget monitoring reports (17 Nov) and financial planning and budgeting (24 Nov). Learn more and book today!
Further LGIU finance work
Local government finance is, as you would imagine, a key part of LGIU output. You can browse through our past catalogue of material on the finance topic page. Go to topic page.
Keep up to date on local government finance with LGIU
Sign up to our website and we will keep you up to date whenever we publish something on a topic you are interested in. Create your website account, it’s free and easy to do, when you get to the ‘My interests’ page select ‘finance’ and any other topics you want.
Are you an LGIU member?
LGIU was founded in the UK in 1983. Now as LGIU England & Wales, LGIU Scotland, LGIU Ireland and LGIU Australia, we work for and with local authorities around the world, helping them to serve their local communities more effectively. We provide our members with the mix of insight, ideas and innovation that they need to get the job done and plan for the future. Put simply, we are here supporting local government every day. Find out more about LGIU membership or register for free on our website.
