Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
2nd Report - The Funding and Sustainability of Local Government Finance
Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
HC 514
Published 23 July 2025
Recommendations
32
Not Addressed
Consider options for reforming and improving efficiency of home-to-school transport services
Recommendation
As part of its ongoing service reform for the SEND sector, the Ministry must consider options for reforming or improving the efficiency of home-to-school transport services. Potential options include wider use of sharing transport, and capital investment to enable councils …
Read more
Government Response Summary
The government attributes rising transport costs to challenges in the wider SEND system and outlines significant funding for SEND reform and capital for school facilities, which it states will indirectly reduce the need for long journeys, but does not directly address reforming or improving the efficiency of home-to-school transport services.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
View Details →
Conclusions (2)
39
Conclusion
Not Addressed
Using property values from 1991, or proxy 1991 values where actual values are not available, is inappropriate and becoming increasingly inappropriate as time goes on. (Conclusion, Paragraph 155)
Government Response Summary
The government notes the broader recommendation to reform council tax but states it has no plans for such reform, though it is focusing on how council tax income is accounted for in funding proposals, without addressing the inappropriateness of using 1991 property values.
49
Conclusion
Not Addressed
The process of issuing and responding to a section 114 notice is not a productive solution to financial unsustainability caused by long-term underfunding and increasing responsibilities. The need to avoid a section 114 notice can itself lead to poor financial management. (Conclusion, Paragraph 191)
Government Response Summary
The government states s114 notices are part of a wider system but acknowledges that financial flexibilities can help manage pressures, having invited views on such flexibilities and promising further detail in the autumn, without directly addressing the committee's criticism of the s114 process itself.