Spring is in the air and relief that annual billing has been completed is only tempered by work on earlier closure of accounts.

Consultations continue and discussion on future funding for local authorities is under way.

Key for many authorities in the short-term will be the Government response to the New Homes Bonus consultation and the sooner we are able to plan for any change, the better.

Authorities are already reviewing medium-term budgets for the next five years and trying to find ways to continue to deliver the services the public value.

The law requires we set a balanced budget and use our best estimates when doing so. Increasingly authorities are warning they may not be able to balance their budgets in future and more chief finance officers are brushing up their knowledge on Section 114 notices while hoping not to have to play that card.

At national level, all focus is on the work of business rate retention. Concern has been expressed about the unexpected announcements in the Budget on extension of small business rate relief and academy status, both of which will impact the size of the retained business rate pot.

Although there is the promise of a refund of any lost income via Section 31 grants it has done little to improve the confidence of the sector that there will not be further tinkering with the overall size of the pot.

There is already concern the pot will not be large enough to cover the increasing costs of social care and we are still awaiting details of the unspecified services to be passed down.

Having just read my local parish magazine and the demands for services to be extended rather than reduced, it is clear some residents don’t want to hear about austerity.

Once all the funding details have been worked out the job of taking the tough decisions on which services are to be provided or stopped will be passed to the local level. I think the sporting analogy may be a ‘hospital pass’.

Norma Atlay is strategic director of finance, policy and governance at North Hertfordshire DC