Local Government ExplainedThe State of Local Government Finance in England 2024
Dr Greg Stride and Mike Woods
This report is drawn from the LGIU’s 11th annual survey of senior council leaders, chief executives, chief finance officers and cabinet members for finance, and provides a detailed picture of how the sector views the current financial position of local authorities.
This report, the 11th annual state of local government finance survey in England, tells a story that is at once both familiar and distinctive.
It is a familiar story of councils struggling to deliver essential services with inadequate funding, pulling all of the levers available to them to make ends meet, increasing numbers of councils falling into effective bankruptcy, and residents paying more to get less.
But this year, there is a difference. The balance has tipped and this report, for the first time, demonstrates how widespread the desperate funding situation for councils is, with more than half of respondents warning that they now face bankruptcy in the next five years if nothing changes.
Find out more about our local government finance research:
Funding systems for local government – international comparisons
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