Spending Review
Centre has 'poor understanding' of what works on local growth, says NAO expert
A large proportion of Government spending is ‘not robustly evaluated’ and there is poor understanding by the centre about the approaches to local economic growth that work best, an expert from the National Audit Office has said.
Future Forum: Funding gap could grow by up to £2bn
The funding gap facing the sector could grow by up to £2bn over the Spending Review period, the deputy chief executive of the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned.
Funding decision signals 'waning influence' of LEPs
The Government’s decision to slash funding for growth hubs and local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) confirms combined authorities will increasingly lead economic development, a former LEP chair has suggested.
Council call to invest in staff
Local government leaders have warned the Scottish Government must recognise and invest in council staff to deliver its key priorities for the next three years.
How will government square the social care charging reforms circle?
Caroline Abrahams says that if the Government gets its way then its 'cap' on catastrophic care costs can no longer be regarded as ‘progressive’. Unless the Treasury changes its mind ‘something will have to give’.
Inflation threatens council budget planning
The forecasts of 8.7% inflation at the end of the year threaten to dramatically change the public sector pay landscape, while Treasury chief secretary Simon Clarke insists that the Spending Review’s annual increases were the last, says Michael Burton.
Future proofing the sector
Neel Patel looks at how councils are establishing large reform programmes to meet the financial challenges.
Councils speak up on adult social care reforms
If the Government’s adult social care charging reforms are underfunded ‘they run the risk of falling at the first hurdle’, says chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board Cllr David Fothergill.
Delay to cyber funding
Millions of pounds of funding to help local authorities improve their cyber-resilience may not reach council coffers for months, The MJ understands.
'Roaring Twenties' could end up as a whimper
'As with the 1920s, today's economic and political landscape is strewn with messy public policy issues that could stifle any roar into a whimper', says chief executive of APSE Paul O'Brien.
Helping our homeless
The scale of the success of the Everyone In initiative in tackling rough sleeping should not be underestimated, and there is now a host of creative projects from which to adopt best practice, says Sir Bob Neill.
Will Gove strengthen the DLUHC’s role in Whitehall?
Levelling up runs through each department’s outcome delivery plans. If Michael Gove is successful in fixing it the sector could be in pole position over the next few years, says Robert Pollock.
A late-notice, short-term and partial settlement poses problems
There may be a clue about why the sector only has a one-year settlement in the lack of announcements around the fair funding review, the overdue business rates reset, and the delayed levelling up White Paper, says Abdool Kara.
Local government's finance community are left scratching their heads
Tony Kirkham hopes the Government looks at alternative ways of managing future transitions and firms up the services grant in order to give a greater level of planning certainty.
Looking ahead with trepidation
Professor Martin Reeves digests the contents of the provisional local government finance settlement and highlights the key reasons why it will fail to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
This settlement is very much a stop gap
Cllr Sir Stephen Houghton of SIGOMA says a ‘stopgap’ settlement with a welcome funding boost needs to be followed by a fair funding review that supports the Government’s levelling up agenda.
The problems with the finance settlement
Ian Miller examines the risks and uncertainties for districts in the provisional settlement, and lists the uncomfortable topics he says ‘cannot be avoided for much longer’.
A step on the journey
The arrival of long-awaited social care White Paper is exciting, or would have been, had there been £15bn to put its vision into effect, writes Caroline Abrahams.
Road to reform – a blurred vision
Achieving the Government’s vision for the future of adult social care will take much more investment than is set out on the face of the white paper, says health and social care policy manager at CIPFA Dr Eleanor Roy.
Social care reform: what lies ahead?
Sally Warren lays out four principles that should be at the centre of a ‘radically realistic’ White Paper on social care reform and asks if its vision will be the right one?
