Briefings and responses

The consultation sets out issues that need to be considered prior to implementing the Government's proposals on further business rate retention.

We support making the IFRS 9 statutory override permanent or, as a minimum, extending for another five years.

Read our 'On the day' briefing for local government

While the LGA welcomes an overall increase in baseline funding for local authorities, are concerned that a significant proportion of the increase in core spending power for 2023/24 has been achieved through a combination of potentially one-off grants, ring-fenced funding, re-allocation of existing funding, and the assumption that local authorities will implement council tax increases. We continue to make the case for multi-year settlements and for more long-term certainty around funding and budgets.

The LGA has long highlighted that council tax rises – particularly the adult social care precept – have never been the solution to the long-term pressures faced by councils, particularly in social care which is facing severe financial and capacity challenges. Increasing council tax raises different amounts of money in different parts of the country, unrelated to need.

The Local Government Finance Settlement has provided extra money to meet COVID-19 costs, new funding for adult and children’s social care and for councils with responsibility for services such as homelessness, planning, recycling and refuse collection, which will help meet cost and demand pressures next year.

We want to work closely with Government on proposals on the Primary Authority Scheme, apprenticeships, non-domestic rates and plans for a public sector exit payment cap.

Emergency proposals for the update of the 2021/22 Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom: Exceptional consultation on time-limited changes to the Code to help alleviate current delays to the publication of audited financial statements

This response has been agreed by the LGA Resources Board.

Alongside Council Tax, business rates represent the largest source of income for councils. In 2018/19 business rates are forecast to raise a total of £24.8 billion, of which about £12 billion is expected to be retained by councils under the current 50 per cent scheme.