Local Government Finance Settlement Due

Local Authorities across the country are waiting for the Provisional local Government Finance Settlement, due to be published this week.

This will be the first settlement following changes made to the funding formula by the Government for the first time in over a decade. 

The Local Government Finance Policy statement published on 20th November set out the headline ways in which the government will be changing the funding formula with some local authorities set to gain with an emphasis on funding areas with high clusters of deprivation.

The RSN is concerned that rural councils, who face the additional costs of delivering services to sparsely populated areas, and an ageing population who place additional demands on services, will lose out in the new drive towards deprivation. 

MHCLG is also due to publish the new Outcomes Framework alongside the financial settlement, which will set out potentially over 100 metrics to enable outcomes-based performance measurement against key national outcomes.

If the Government wants the Outcomes Framework to be delivered across the whole of the country, it will need to ensure that all councils have the resources they need to meet the needs of their communities, and this includes those in sparsely populated areas who face additional challenges in service delivery.