The provisional local government finance settlement provided us with an early Christmas present, but also a rather late one as we now finalise this year's budgets. The settlement represents the culmination of a very significant set of changes to the distribution of local government funding. The civil servants who led this process deserve credit for delivering this and for their engagement with the sector.
Having a three-year settlement and simplification of grants represent positive progress. But some of the fundamental financial challenges remain, not least that the size of the pie is not big enough for what councils are being asked to do, and the fact that council tax is such a flawed mechanism for funding local services. The ongoing review of statutory duties may help, but fundamental strategic issues remain.
