Working together on finances
Our shared work on the financial settlement for local government yielded a stopgap of a further essential £600 million, helping our councils set balanced budgets over the next month.
finance
‘Extend support for vulnerable households’ – LGA
The LGA is calling on the Government to extend the Household Support Fund, amid warnings that six million of the poorest people in the UK would need to more than double their income to escape poverty.
Ministers press councils on reserves
The LGA has warned that reserves “can only be spent once” in response to calls from ministers for councils to use them in response to current funding pressures.
Invest local to save
After months of LGA and council warnings that growing funding gaps would lead to cuts in services, the Government announced in January that an additional £600 million will be included in the final local government finance settlement for 2024/25.
An admission of total failure
Just days before many councils set their most difficult budgets in years – and many months after the LGA warned that soaring demand for social care and temporary accommodation was posing an existential risk to council budgets – the Government has finally backtracked on its catastrophic provisional local government finance settlement for 2024/25 and announced £600 million in extra funding.
Tough decisions as costs rise
As Independents and members of smaller parties, we need to take important – sometimes life-changing – decisions on behalf of all our residents, including the most vulnerable.
No extra funding for English councils
Councils in England still face a £4 billion funding gap over the next two years after no extra support was announced in the provisional finance settlement for 2024/25, the LGA has said.
‘Outlook remains bleak’ for council services in Wales
The Welsh LGA has warned of “extremely turbulent times ahead” for local services in Wales, after councils were awarded a 3.1 per cent increase in core revenue funding in 2024/25.
Effective financial management
Over the past two months, I have had the privilege of chairing a number of roundtable discussions with senior officers to discuss LGA-commissioned research into councils with experience of finance and governance challenges.