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Sir Stephen Houghton

Articles by Sir Stephen Houghton

Fair funding finally within sight

By Sir Stephen Houghton | 11 July 2025

Full council tax equalisation will have a huge impact for the most deprived areas, but for the se...

The uncertainty principle

By Sir Stephen Houghton | 12 June 2023

Council finances are fragile after 13 years of cuts and an extended period of uncertainty, and mu...

Cash is key to invest in prevention

By Sir Stephen Houghton | 25 April 2023

Children’s services need the same attention as adult social care, and the £2.6bn set out in the M...

Why levelling up is on life support

By Sir Stephen Houghton | 30 November 2022

Cllr Sir Stephen Houghton says it is the poorest and most vulnerable who rely on local services a...

A defining moment for levelling up

By Sir Stephen Houghton | 08 November 2022

Sir Stephen Houghton warns Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt have some huge economic choices to make, b...

The inclusion of councils in the Energy Bill Relief Scheme is good news

By Sir Stephen Houghton | 23 September 2022

Support for councils’ energy bills is welcome but inflation continues to impact and will still pl...

Queen's Speech: 'levelling up' let down

By Sir Stephen Houghton | 25 May 2022

Sir Stephen Houghton says we must not see blame being levelled on those areas who are not able to...

White Paper has welcome ambition but fails to mention role of austerity

By Sir Stephen Houghton | 25 February 2022

Even if the Government streamlines funding arrangements it will not be able to achieve any of the...

Inflation's a concern for councils and residents

By Sir Stephen Houghton | 01 February 2022

Councils and residents are facing severe price rises that will hit the more deprived hardest, say...

This settlement is very much a stop gap

By Sir Stephen Houghton | 20 December 2021

Cllr Sir Stephen Houghton of SIGOMA says a ‘stopgap’ settlement with a welcome funding boost need...