Local government finance

The COVID-19 crisis is having immediate effects on councils’ budgets as a result of increases in spending on local services and reductions in income from sales, fees and charges and commercial activities.

The COVID-19 crisis is increasing councils’ spending and reducing their incomes. This report analyses councils’ forecasts of these pressures and potential policy responses.

The COVID-19 crisis has affected every part of the country – and indeed many other countries. What sets this crisis apart is the many different ways that it is impacting families: while the virus itself is primarily a public health issue, the unprecedented responses it has necessitated mean that this is also very much an economic and a social crisis.

Council tax bands in Wales are based on property values in April 2003 – 17 years ago. That is more up to date than in England and Scotland, where they are based on values in April 1991 (almost 30 years ago!). But it is still enough time for the relative values of different properties to change significantly: for example, official estimates suggest that while average prices had doubled since 2003 across Wales as a whole by the end of 2019, those in Blaenau Gwent had risen 171% compared with just 77% in Wrexham.

In this presentation given the at the Local Government's Winter Finance Conference on 6th January 2020, David Phillips looks at the outlook for local government funding, arguing that unless current plans are topped up, local government could face a renewed funding squeeze from 2021-22 onwards.

Local government funding is rarely a major battleground in election campaigns. This ‘rule’ appears to be holding in the current campaign, despite evident pressures in areas like adults’ and children’s social care services, following a decade of cuts to councils’ funding.  This observation looks at the plans for English local government funding set out in the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos – which differ vastly.

This presentation was given at Southwark Exchequer Services' Stakeholder Conference on 19 November 2019.

It seems unlikely that business rates and council tax will keep pace with costs and demand writes David Phillips in this article for the Local Government Chronicle.

In this article for the Municipal Journal, David Phillips examines the choices the next Government will face, including whether (and how much) to raise taxes. What it decides could have big implications for councils and those who rely on their services.

On Wednesday 13th November, IFS researchers released their first annual report on local government revenue and spending issues, supported by our Local Government Finance and Devolution Consortium.

The 2010s saw big cuts to councils’ funding and spending, and while these may be over, rising costs and demands will mean further budget pressures. This report looks backwards and forwards at funding levels and reforms.

The Spending Round announcement last week seems a positive move for the sector on the face of it, but raises questions over the the future balance between central control and local discretion writes David Phillips in this article for the MJ.