Spending Review
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?
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.
