Briefings and responses

The current Household Support Fund (HSF), which contributed £840 million to English councils’ provision of local welfare support in 2023/24, is set to end on 31 March 2024.

The current issues with local audit are complex and have a number of causes including a limited number of firms within the market and a shortage of suitably qualified auditors working for those firms. This situation has been made worse by tighter and stricter regulation of auditors following audit scandals in the private sector and more recently by the difficulty of auditing under COVID restrictions.

Overall, we have significant concerns with the proposed changes to the Prudential Code and these are outlined in our response to the consultation on that. We are equally concerned at how those changes interact with and impact on the Treasury Management Code. In particular we are concerned that activity that is currently seen as good practice in Treasury Management will be restricted to the detriment of councils’ finances.

The Rating (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Bill legislates to ensure that COVID-19 cannot be taken as a cause of material changes of circumstances for business rates and makes provision in connection with the disqualification of directors of companies that are dissolved without becoming insolvent. We welcome the provisions in in the Bill.

It will be important that this funding is kept under review to ensure it is enough to meet demand and that guidance is published as soon as possible so that councils can set up schemes and ensure the new funding reaches businesses. Any new burdens due to administrative or IT costs should also covered by the Government.

Prior to the Spending Review, the LGA estimated that councils faced cost pressures of £2.6 billion in each year up to 2024/25, to keep services at their 2019/20 levels of access and quality – without addressing any pre-existing pressures.

The Local Government Association is here to support, promote and improve local government. We will fight local government's corner and support councils through challenging times by making the case for greater devolution, helping councils tackle their challenges and assisting them to deliver better value for money services.

Almost no new money from central government has been included in the settlement, although the Government has increased the general council tax referendum limit from 1.99 per cent to 2.99 per cent for 2018/19 and 2019/20. 

This response has been agreed by Lead Members of the LGA Economy and Resources Board.

This response has been agreed by the LGA Resources Board.