Spending Review
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?
LGA warning over soaring care costs
Soaring adult and children’s care costs mean councils could ‘soon fail to support everyone they need to,’ town halls have warned.
ALATS can aim to cultivate an environment supportive of finance chiefs
Tony Kirkham has taken up the reins as the new president of the Association of Local Authority Treasurers Societies (ALATS). He says that with the right conversations with chief financial officers 'we can deliver improvements'.
Skills to even out life’s opportunities
We can’t hope to level up until we build on the Spending Review cash pledges and fundamentally reform the skills and apprenticeship system, writes Sir Paul Carter.
Getting our economies growing
Focused on levelling up, finance, social care, local economies, climate change and the ongoing challenge of coronavirus, the CCN 2021 Conference will feature key speakers from the heart of Government and the sector, writes Cllr Tim Oliver.
Will funding land next month to help levelling up?
Councils will await with interest December’s annual financial settlement to see where funding lands at the local level, says Paul O'Brien. Will this signify the beginning of significant attempts at levelling up, he asks.
LGA chair: Councils should have the freedom to set rates
Councils should be put on the right financial footing to enable them to set council tax rates however they choose, says the chairman of the Local Government Association, James Jamieson.
We now need certainty on cash in the medium term
We've had the Spending Review, but for Dan Bates, having certainty in the medium-term is just as important as the allocations themselves. He adds: 'That certainty extends to New Homes Bonus and business rates growth reset.'
We need a long term and strategic approach to funding
The Spending Review 'underlines the desperate need for Government to view local government as a critical component of our state infrastructure, performing a serious role, and to fund it as such', says Claire Kober.
Local government must be at the heart of proposals for levelling up
The CCN, along with the Local Government Association and others, worked tirelessly to make the case for more funding, 'and this positive result from the Spending Review was testament to the effectiveness of our advocacy', says Simon Edwards.
‘We are in a solid position'
Are Nottinghamshire CC’s finances on a firm enough footing to deal with the challenges ahead this winter? Ann McGauran reports.
Places filling fast at Future Forum North
Places are filling fast at The MJ’s Future Forum North event in Manchester on December 2 and 3.
Chancellor’s ‘age of optimism’ doesn’t ring true for council finances
The Spending Review did not bring funding back to anything like 2010 levels and London boroughs are left facing £400m losses over the next two years, says Cllr Darren Rodwell.
Spending Review is another missed chance on ‘levelling up’
While we still await detail behind the Spending Review headlines, what we do know raises serious questions about the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda, says Cllr Sir Stephen Houghton.
Minister tells councils price of devolution
Levelling up minister Neil O’Brien has told councils they will have to improve their ‘governance, efficiency and service delivery’ in return for more devolution, The MJ understands.
Doing nothing is now not an option
As the Government released its latest reports on the financial failures there is a lesson to be learned, says Heather Jameson: denial is not an option.
Cash is welcome but not the only answer
The funding for local government revealed by the chancellor in last week’s Spending Review is welcome – but it does not come close to addressing the financial woes of districts, says Cllr Sharon Taylor.
Ducking for apples
Jonathan Werran analyses the Spending Review’s announcements on the centrally-controlled funds directing the allocation of cash for local place investment.
Finding evidence to support the 'bleedin' obvious'
Abdool Kara asks why such a small proportion of health money is devoted to preventative activities. 'It can only be because the Department of Health or HM Treasury are not convinced by the evidence.'
The good, the bad and the ugly
If the Government is to hit its goals on integration, prevention and health inequality it needs to fund the NHS, social care and public health properly. But the Spending Review was a mixed picture, says Rob Whiteman.
