LGIU Response: Autumn Budget 2024

Jonathan Carr-West, Chief Executive, Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) said:

“The Chancellor billed this as an historically consequential budget of hard choices. That’s certainly true in many areas with £40bn of tax rises announced and significant changes to the government’s debt rules.

“For local government, however, it is a budget of choices deferred. It could have been worse – there’s an additional £1.3bn in funding including money for social care and additional funding for housing, and special educational needs: the very areas that are driving many councils to bankruptcy.

“But this extra funding is not even half the gap that councils currently face.

“The longer-tem change that the sector desperately needs is all deferred for now. We are waiting on the Local Government Finance Settlement, on the Devolution White Paper and on a broader redistribution of funding through a multi-year settlement from 2026-27.

“There were some welcome highlights: retaining 100% of right to buy receipts and integrated settlements for Greater Manchester and the West Midlands and possibly for other places in future.

“Is this a start? Yes. Is it enough? Not by a long shot. At least not yet. There’s a positive direction of travel set out, but there’s a long way to go and the pressure on council finances means there’s a real risk that some councils will not be able to hang on long enough to get there.”

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