Recommendation 12

Successive Governments have relied too much on ringfencing of funding to control the activities of local government. Through ringfencing, the Government has required local authorities to spend their money in specified ways, which may not be the most efficient use of that money in the local context. Local authorities would be able to make more use of their local knowledge and make better decisions within their local context if the Government used an outcomes-based system: rather than requiring local authorities to spend specific amounts of money in certain ways, requiring local authorities to achieve certain outcomes within their overall budget. (Conclusion, Paragraph 61)