Local government funding and financial management.
Councils are facing unprecedented financial pressure and core services are creaking. How did we get here and what needs to happen? In this week’s bumper episode we speak to council leaders, the LGA, SOLACE and experts from the NAO, IFS and CfPS about their reaction to the findings of LGiU’s State of Local Government Finance…
With the recent announcements to advance the plebiscites for executive mayors in Cork, Limerick and Waterford, LGiU Ireland looks at one of the most interesting dynamics arising from appointment of Metro Mayors in the UK.
LGiU and The MJ have run the State of Local Government Finance Survey every January since 2012 to coincide with councils setting their annual budgets. The results give a snapshot of the key pressures facing councils and the impact of ongoing financial uncertainty on their communities.
The latest instalment of our monthly housing updates includes housing for older people, reports released, facts and figures and housing news.
If local taxpayers are now going to be asked to finance the running of a combined authority, are they getting value for money? We look here at the 2019-20 budget of the Liverpool Combined Authority and what has been achieved there since its inception.
The National Audit Office has analysed increased local authority expenditure on children’s social care services, finding demand outstripping increases in the child population, but with a significant part of the variation between local authorities remaining unexplained.
This consultation includes a new proposal to introduce variable business rates baselines and “floating” top-ups and tariffs which, it claims, would remove many of the uncertainties around how much business rates income is retained. The consultation is running in parallel with a consultation on local authorities’ relative needs and resources.
Progress has been made since the initial consultation – there is a recognisable structure of the funding formula, but there is still a lot do before the system is ready to be introduced for 2020-21, and concerns have been expressed about what is included in assessing relative needs.
Jonathan Carr-West’s latest column for The Municipal Journal.
LGiU partnered with Core Cities and London Councils to host a roundtable discussion on local government finance. Held on 15th January, we welcomed 10 Chief Finance Officers of councils in Core Cities and London Boroughs to hear their views on the current financial situation and what we should be doing as a sector to move…
