Councils across the East of England urge the Government to recognize the importance of funding local authorities adequately if growth and good public services are to be achieved.
In a detailed response led by Local Government East (LGE), local authorities have raised key issues they would like to see resolved in the upcoming consultations on local government funding.
Starting with the latest consultation on the “objectives and principles of local government finance”, councils were asked about central government’s direction around funding, and how it could be rationalised to make more sense for local authorities – and supports their mutual objective to deliver better, more localised, services.
Some of the outlined proposals were welcome. The government’s continued desire to reimburse local authorities based on the cost of the service provision is important in our more rural areas, where remoteness generates considerable additional costs. In addition, the need for up-to-date data is important – so long as it is also sufficiently granular to ensure that the East of England’s deprived communities are not left unnoticed. The announcement that three-year funding settlements will become a regular feature has been welcomed.
There is considerable need for support around key areas of service provision that are currently under catered for, such as SEND, social care, and homelessness. These are issues where national-level risks could be found, and local authorities currently lack either the resource allocation, or local flexibility to raise funding, to effectively manage these risks. To maintain the effective and efficient delivery of local services, this must change.
LGEs response to the consultation focusses on the key areas of local government funding that could be changed within the East of England to give local authorities greater flexibility around their income, including council tax, sales, fees, and charges.
Simple-to-reverse decisions taken around local authority funding are denying authorities of much needed income. This includes the way that National Insurance Contribution increases are being managed, to the Government’s continued cap on cost recovery for temporary accommodation, leaving some local authorities losing millions of pounds over homelessness pressures.
Therefore, LGE asks for local authorities to be given the funding they need to deliver the services local people want, in a timely, regular, and cost-effective manner – whether this is through the use of cost-recovery, or by central government grant.
Cllr Waterman, Lead Member for Local Government Finance and Leader of West Suffolk Council, said that: “The government is relying on local government for considerable amounts of what it wants to achieve, from housebuilding to health and wellbeing. We welcome these challenges and want to play our full part in the national rebuilding that is so badly needed. It is therefore vital to ensure that the costs of providing these services are met. We look forward to future consultations at the earliest possible moment, to give the sector plenty of time to engage with any potential proposals.”