A briefing paper examined the local government finance settlement for 2011-12 and 2012-13, including the treatment of deprived areas. There were larger falls in revenue spending power for the more deprived authorities as they were more reliant on central government money than the less deprived, which raised a higher proportion through council tax.
Source: Matthew Keep and Gavin Berman, Local Government Finance Settlement 2011/12 & 2012/13: Initial Analysis, Standard Note SN/SG/5801, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Dec
A report called for a fair way to reduce funding for local government services – one that took into account how deprived an area was, and did not unfairly 'skew' cuts to already deprived areas.
Source: All In This Together? The need for a fair approach to local government cuts, Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Dec
The government announced that local councils in England would face a cut of almost 10 per cent in 2011-12 in their core central government funding, and a further 7.3 per cent in 2012-13. The cuts were part of a policy to cut central funding to local authorities by 28 per cent over four years. Councils would see their overall 'spending power' reduced by 4.4 per cent on average in 2011-12, with none facing cuts of more than 8.9 per cent in 2011-12 or 2012-13, after taking into account all other grants and sources of income such as council tax and National Health Service funding.
Source: Debate 13 December 2010, columns 679-697, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Hansard | DCLG press release | Guide to 2011-12 | Liberal Democrats press release | Labour Party press release | Action for Children press release | CBI press release | Childrens Society press release | LGA press release | London Councils press release | Mencap press release | Museums Association press release | NASUWT press release | NLGN press release | Turning Point press release | BBC report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Guardian report (3) | Community Care report (1) | Community Care report (2) | Public Finance report | Inside Housing report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Dec
A report called for a system of local budgets for public spending. It said that a 'vast quantity of waste and unnecessary cost' was caused by the centralized way in which many local services were funded and run.
Source: Local Budgets: Building the Big Society from the neighbourhood up, Local Government Association
Links: Report | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Oct
The coalition government announced (in its 2010 Spending Review) that spending by local authorities in England would be cut by 26 per cent in real terms by 2014-15. Ring-fenced grants would be scrapped and absorbed into a single revenue grant, giving councils greater control over how money was spent. Councils would also have greater freedom to borrow money against the value of their assets.
Source: Spending Review 2010, Cm 7942, HM Treasury/TSO
Links: Report | Summary | Hansard | HMT press release | DCLG press release | Letter | CCN briefing | CfC press release | LGA press release | Mencap press release | PwC press release | RICS press release | RTPI press release | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2010-Oct
The new coalition government announced that local councils in England would be given a new right to borrow funds against the projected extra income generated from new large-scale projects aimed at developing their local area.
Source: Speech by Nick Clegg MP (Deputy Prime Minister), 20 September 2010
Links: Text of speech | HMT press release | BPF press release | CBI press release | LGA press release | Guardian report | Community Care report | Inside Housing report | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-Sep
The government began consultation on options for grant distribution changes that could be introduced from the 2011-12 settlement onwards for local authorities in England.
Source: Local Government Finance Formula Grant Distribution: Consultation Paper, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Consultation document
Date: 2010-Jul
A think-tank report called on the government to offer local councils more financial freedom to help them cope with an estimated £12 billion shortfall as a result of funding cuts.
Source: Nick Hope, James Kirkland and David Chapman, Financial Horizons: Modelling the local consequences of fiscal consolidation, New Local Government Network
Links: NLGN press release | New Start report
Date: 2010-Jul
A report said that public services could be made cheaper, simpler, more effective, and more transparent by making locally elected people responsible for allocating public money and taking decisions about local services. Local councils or groups of councils should be responsible to local voters and to parliament for spending on frontline services under a new system of 'place-based budgeting'.
Source: Place-Based Budgets: The future governance of local public services, Local Government Association
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jul
The government began consultation on a proposed scheme under which residents in England would be given a veto over 'excessive' increases in their council tax bill.
Source: Local Referendums to Veto Excessive Council Tax Increases: Consultation, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Consultation document | Conservative Party press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jul
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government published details of cuts totalling £1.166 billion in central funding to local government in England in 2010-11. No local authority would face reductions in its revenue grant of more than 2 per cent. But £311 million was cut from local authority grants for education initiatives, including reducing teenage pregnancies and youth drug addiction. The entire allocation of housing and delivery grant funding was also removed – a total of £141 million.
Source: Local Government Contribution to Efficiencies in 2010-11, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Report | Hansard | DCLG press release | LGA press release | NHF press release | RTPI press release | CfBT press release | Guardian report | New Start report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jun
The government said that the average band D council tax set by local authorities in England for 2010-11 would be £1,439, compared with £1,414 in 2009-10. This equated to an average increase of 1.8 per cent, the lowest increase since the introduction of council tax in 1993-94.
Source: Council Tax Levels Set by Local Authorities in England: 2010-11, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Report | DCLG press release | LGA press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Conservative Party press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report examined the reasons for doing participatory budgeting; what it involved; and how much it would cost. It provided evidence on what had been achieved by the use of the participatory budgeting process in England. (Participatory budgeting was designed to drew on local knowledge and opinions to ensure that public resources were spent on what mattered to local people.)
Source: SQW Consulting, National Evaluation of Participatory Budgeting in England: Interim Evaluation Report, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Mar
An audit report said that local councils in England needed to 'think bigger and act quicker' in order to reduce costs – otherwise cuts in funding would cause more damage to services and jobs than necessary.
Source: Surviving the Crunch: Local finances in the recession and beyond, Audit Commission
Links: Report | Appendices | Audit Commission press release | Guardian report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2010-Mar
The report of an official taskforce set out ten steps that local councils should take in order to protect spending on frontline services. They included: sharing 'back office roles' such as human resources and information technology; using the same chief executive at two councils; and reducing the number of buildings used by bringing services together under the same roof.
Source: Putting the Frontline First Taskforce, Putting the Frontline First: Meeting the local government challenge, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Report | Total Place press release | DCLG press release
Date: 2010-Mar
A report by a committee of MSPs said that there needed to be a 'full and open' debate about what services local councils provided in the future, in the light of financial pressures.
Source: Report on Local Government Finance Inquiry, 2nd Report 2010, SP Paper 377, Scottish Parliament Local Government and Communities Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release | Local Government Chronicle report
Date: 2010-Jan
An interim report drew some provisional conclusions from the 'Total Place' initiative (a series of pilot schemes aimed at mapping total public spending in 13 different areas in England), and located the initiative within a wider body of academic literature on leadership and change.
Source: Keith Grint, Total Place: Interim Research Report, Leadership Centre for Local Government
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jan
A think-tank report called for local authorities to be allowed to restructure debt repayments on council housing, in order to take advantage of historically low interest rates.
Source: Amelia Walker, Once and for All: Funding the improvement gap in existing council housing, Local Government Information Unit and Southwark Council
Links: Report | LGIU press release | Local Government Chronicle report
Date: 2010-Jan
A report evaluated the potential savings from a London-wide roll-out of the government's 'Total Place' scheme, designed to improve efficiency through enhanced public sector collaboration in local areas. It found that £1.6 billion a year could be saved on the existing budget of £10.6 billion. Savings could be made through more use of early intervention, greater accountability of staff to customers, and the removal of overlapping roles between agencies.
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Total Place: Towards a new service model for Londoners, London Councils
Links: Report | London Councils press release | Guardian report | Community Care report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Jan