An article examined the implementation of evidence-based parenting programmes in a small sample of urban local authorities in England. Implementation was not necessarily in line with policy or guidance. The authors considered issues associated with programme fidelity, along with concerns about sustainability as a result of cuts in funding.
Source: Anne West, Louisa Mitchell, and Tony Murphy, 'Implementing evidence-based parenting programmes in a small sample of English urban local authorities: eligibility, fidelity and intensity', Children & Society, Volume 27 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Dec
The Local Audit and Accountability Bill was given a third reading. The Bill was designed to abolish the Audit Commission for local authorities and the National Health Service in England; change the accounting rules, audit procedures, reporting, and publicity requirements for various local and other public authorities; and make provision about council tax referendums.
Source: Local Audit and Accountability Bill, Department for Communities and Local Government, TSO | Debate 17 December 2013, columns 645-710, House of Commons Hansard, TSO
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | Explanatory notes II | Hansard
Date: 2013-Dec
A report called for an increase in the supply of social rented and affordable housing. It outlined a role for local authorities and arms length management organizations in building up to 60,000 additional homes over five years, and called for the borrowing cap on local authority borrowing to be lifted.
Source: John Perry, Let s Get Building: The case for local authority investment in rented homes to help drive economic growth, National Federation of ALMOs
Links: Report | Summary | LGA press release
Date: 2013-Dec
A study examined the impact of local government spending cuts in three boroughs in London, England, since the Comprehensive Spending Review of 2010. The interim report said that there had been a 33 per cent reduction in service funding from central government between 2009-10 and 2013-14, which councils had tried to absorb while minimizing impact on services for those in most need. It said that most savings were achieved through efficiency measures that now presented limited further savings opportunities. Councils had also reduced their involvement in discretionary service provision, much of which had been delivered through voluntary sector organizations. The report noted that the localism agenda would be undermined by the need to cut local authority provision back to a statutory minimum, and that intense targeting could mean that lower levels of need went unmet. A final report, due in mid-2014, would consider the implications of the responses for the lives of local residents.
Source: Amanda Fitzgerald, Ruth Lupton, Ronan Smyth, and Polly Vizard, Hard Times, New Directions? The impact of the local government spending cuts in London – interim report, Working paper SPCCWP07, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (London School of Economics)
Date: 2013-Dec
An audit report said that the Department for Communities and Local Government had worked effectively with local authorities to ensure council tax support was introduced on schedule, but some local authorities' support schemes would not achieve the expected objectives. It said that most local authorities had reduced available support: 71 per cent now required working age claimants to pay some council tax regardless of income; and 41 per cent had no protections in place for vulnerable groups, other than those mandated for pensioners and war pensioners. Most had used new powers to charge more council tax on some properties, to help offset the funding reduction for council tax support. The report said that the DCLG needed to do more to check that local authorities could manage the cumulative impact of funding and welfare changes.
Source: Council Tax Support, National Audit Office
Links: Report | Summary | NAO press release | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Dec
An article examined budget cuts by English local authorities. Cost-cutting and efficiency measures dominated, as in previous periods of austerity: but creative approaches to service redesign were also emerging.
Source: Vivien Lowndes and Kerry McCaughie, 'Weathering the perfect storm? Austerity and institutional resilience in local government', Policy & Politics, Volume 41 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Dec
A report examined changes in local authority spending in England between 2010-11 and 2013-14 in response to reductions in funding. It said that councils had seen funding cut at the same time as their other streams of income had reduced and demand for services had risen. The report said that local authorities had demonstrated a high degree of financial resilience but, with some uncertainty about future cuts, it noted concern about the ability to deliver medium term plans in around one third of authorities. The research had found that the three strategies most widely used in response to the funding cuts were: staff reductions; efficiency savings; and the reduction or restructuring of senior management teams.
Source: Tough Times 2013: Councils responses to financial challenges from 2010/11 to 2013/14, Audit Commission
Links: Report | Methodology | Audit Commission press release | BBC report
Date: 2013-Nov
A study examined local government spending cuts and their impact on poorer communities. It said that spending overall was set to fall by nearly 30 per cent in real terms between 2008 and 2015 (24 per cent in Scotland), with new and increased demands deepening the effect of the funding cuts. It said that cuts had been greater in more deprived local authorities than in more affluent ones, higher in the North and Midlands than in the south of England, and, in Scotland, higher in the west than the east. It said that authorities had been trying to protect the most vulnerable social groups, but opportunities for efficiency savings were diminishing and local authorities were now repositioning themselves by withdrawing from some services and taking a greater role in prevention and local economic development.
Source: Annette Hastings, Nick Bailey, Kirsten Besemer, Glen Bramley, Maria Gannon, and David Watkins, Coping with the Cuts? Local government and poorer communities, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Report | JRF press release
Date: 2013-Nov
A report from a debt advice charity examined levels of debt in Scotland. It said that clients in Scotland had the highest volume of payday lending in the United Kingdom. By June 2013, over 10 per cent of total client debt in Scotland was the result of payday loans, and almost 20 per cent of clients had at least one payday loan. The report said that there had been large increases in priority debt arrears such as rent, mortgage, gas and electricity, particularly in the previous six months. The charity's clients in Scotland also had almost double the United Kingdom average level of council tax arrears in 2012.
Source: Scotland in the Red, StepChange Debt Charity
Links: Report | StepChange press release | CAB Scotland press release
Date: 2013-Nov
A report examined the impact of funding cuts on specialist domestic violence support services. It said that there had been a move towards commissioning generalist, non-specialist services, with notable losses of both targeted refuge provision and longer term, community-based work. It noted regional variations in the loss of services, and the potential impact on the statutory services. The report called for local commissioners to work with specialist providers in making best use of available resources.
Source: Katy Taylor, A Growing Crisis of Unmet Need: What the figures alone don t show you, Women's Aid Federation of England
Links: Report | WAF press release | Guardian report
Date: 2013-Nov
A report by a committee of MPs said that community budgets were demonstrating their potential to deliver cheaper, more integrated, and more effective public services but were at risk of being abandoned if key issues were not resolved. The report called on the government to send a clear message of support for community budgets and to prevent the programme of pilots from slowing progress towards wider implementation.
Source: Community Budgets, Third Report (Session 2013-14), HC 163, House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Committee press release | London Councils press release | Guardian report
Date: 2013-Oct
The Welsh government published the local government provisional settlement figures for 2014-15.
Source: Local Government Finance Report (No.1) 2014-15 (Provisional Settlement – Councils), Welsh Government
Links: Report | Welsh Government press release
Date: 2013-Oct
A think-tank report examined local government responses to changes in grant funding and how they were placed to respond to demography-led changes in demand at a time of reducing budgets. The report noted that councils had already moved towards greater innovation and increased collaborative and partnership working. The report called for further collaboration to take forward change, and identified needs including improved commissioning skills, the removal of technical barriers, and support from HM Treasury.
Source: Changing Places: How innovation and transformation is taking place in local government, Localis/Civica
Links: Report | Civica press release
Date: 2013-Oct
The government published its response to the consultation on the community infrastructure levy. The report stated that the government would now develop regulations and guidance.
Source: Community Infrastructure Levy: Consultation on further regulatory reforms – government response, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Response to consultation | DCLG press release
Date: 2013-Oct
The Local Audit and Accountability Bill was given a second reading. The Bill was designed to abolish the Audit Commission for local authorities and the National Health Service in England; change the accounting rules, audit procedures, reporting, and publicity requirements for various local and other public authorities; and make provision about council tax referendums.
Source: Local Audit and Accountability Bill, Department for Communities and Local Government, TSO | Debate 28 October 2013, columns 678-730, House of Commons Hansard, TSO
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | Briefing
Date: 2013-Oct
An audit report in Scotland said that there were significant variations between councils in charges for services. It said that charges should be consistent, clear and easily explained to the public. It also said that councils should compare their charges with others and be able to explain any significant differences. It made recommendations for good practice.
Source: Charging for Services: Are you getting it right?, Audit Scotland
Links: Report | Audit Scotland press release | BBC report
Date: 2013-Oct
A report examined the impact of the coalition government's recent and proposed local government funding reforms in England. It said that it was clear that municipal local authorities had started off from a position of disadvantage; had borne a disproportionate burden of cuts; and carried the greatest risk of the highest cuts in the future. It also provided an overview of the impact of changes to the benefits and welfare systems, and the detrimental impact that these were likely to have on communities in metropolitan areas. It called on the government to stop the growing divide between the more prosperous and weaker local economies.
Source: A Fair Future? The true impact of funding reductions on local government, Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Sep
A report examined key lessons arising from the community budget pilots, and the challenges and opportunities that these created. Community budgets occupied one place within a complex delivery picture that encompassed a number of different approaches both to devolution and to tackling deep-rooted social problems. Alongside this, individual government departments were engaged in their own often far-reaching reforms to centrally held budgets (across health, education, skills, and employment support). Bringing coherence to this landscape would require central government, local government, and local public services and partners to work better together in agreeing local priorities, co-ordinating provision, and measuring success.
Source: Tony Wilson and Paul Gallagher, Community Works: Putting work, skills and enterprise at the heart of community budgets, Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion
Date: 2013-Jul
A discussion paper said that Whitehall should give up control of council tax and allow local authorities to set their own rates. It also questioned the coalition government's part-localization of business rates, and warned that this could lead to a 'race to the bottom' by competing local authorities.
Source: Austerity and Beyond, Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy
Links: Paper | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Jul
Researchers examined the outcome of the neighbourhood community budget pilots. They said that there was some potential for neighbourhood-level budgeting to offer significant efficiencies through service re-design, as evidenced by many of the (community-led) business cases for new ways of working. These business cases, however, needed further development and testing in practice.
Source: Robert Rutherfoord, Lucy Spurling, Amy Busy, and Beth Watts, Neighbourhood Community Budget Pilot Programme: Research, Learning, Evaluation and Lessons, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Jul
A report said that severe budgetary pressures faced by local authorities had forced them to fundamentally alter their services. Many services had been either outsourced or cut considerably, with local areas suffering 'irreversible damage as a result.
Source: CLES Consulting, The Cuts: UK's Damaged Future, Unison
Links: Report | Unison press release | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Jun
A report by a committee of MPs said that the coalition government was cutting funding to local authorities in England by more than one-quarter over four years, but did not properly understand what the overall impact would be on local services and vulnerable groups. Individual councils were seeing very different levels of funding reductions, of between 1 and nearly 9 per cent in 2012-13. This raised the spectre of the worst-affected councils being unable to meet their statutory obligations. In some cases local authorities might cease to be viable, with the first such authority already identified.
Source: Financial Sustainability of Local Authorities, Third Report (Session 2013-14), HC 134, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Committee press release | CIPFA press release | LGA press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Jun
A think-tank report said that, despite moves to devolve more powers to a local level, Whitehall still determined more than 60 per cent of local government budgets and set rules on how they could be spent: local government had gained freedoms more in name than in practice. Cities risked being left with more responsibility for their local finances without the tools that they needed to increase them. Councils would be increasingly dependent on economic growth to fund services, which could put further pressure on areas such as adult social care.
Source: Zach Wilcox and Joe Sarling, Ways and Means: Money management and power in local government, Centre for Cities
Links: Report | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-May
A report examined how local authorities were using research evidence to help them reconcile substantial cuts in funding with increasing demand for services.
Source: Derrick Johnstone, Squaring the Circle: Evidence at the local level, Alliance for Useful Evidence
Links: Report
Date: 2013-May
A think-tank report said that local councils in England could decide to abandon whole areas of spending, such as leisure, tourism, and cultural services, as they struggled to deliver cuts that could amount to 50 per cent of their budget by 2018. Council support for schools could also be hard hit as local authorities pushed the financial burden on to academies – putting pressure on childcare, school transport, and free school meals.
Source: Joe Manning, Gaming the Cuts: Anyborough in 2018, New Local Government Network
Links: Report | Summary | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Apr
An audit report in Scotland said that local councils needed to improve their planning and control of major capital projects.
Source: Major Capital Investment in Councils, Audit Scotland
Links: Report | Audit Scotland press release | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Mar
A report examined the outcome of a pilot of community budgets. It said that extending community budgets in England could save up to £4 billion per year. Devolving more decisions to local areas would also lead to better services.
Source: Ernst & Young LLP, Whole Place Community Budgets: A review of the potential for aggregation, Local Government Association
Links: Report | LGA press release
Notes: Community budgets bring together public sector funding in local areas to give authorities such as local councils, the police, and health services the ability to integrate their work and design services around the needs of the people who use them.
Date: 2013-Jan
An audit report highlighted the increasing difficulty faced by local authorities in England in absorbing cuts in central government funding without reducing services. Only half the savings required by them by March 2015 had been delivered, and 1 in 8 was at risk of being unable to balance its books.
Source: Financial Sustainability of Local Authorities, HC 888 (Session 2012–13), National Audit Office, TSO
Links: Report | NAO press release | CBI press release | CIPFA press release | LGA press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Jan