A veil of unnecessary secrecy seems to have cloaked local government finance recently.
Take the Fair Funding 2.0 consultation document. No exemplifications were published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), which may seem reasonable when some formulae had not been finalised. But expecting the sector to commission models and giving feedback that a model is ‘about right' doesn't help councils to understand the position. One district used two models, both apparently endorsed, but they produced outcomes differing by a few million pounds – a significant sum for a district.
