Recommendation 24

Representatives of the local government sector told us that the way in which government support had been designed or announced has also created or perpetuated uncertainty. SIGOMA explained that “2020–21 has been a year of month to month existence with incremental and mostly reactive funding without which all of our members would have failed”.68 The LGA highlighted that councils were receiving more funding through specific grants accessed by making bids in competition with other councils; while CIPFA observed that “this preponderance of bids [as a basis for funding decisions] is making life even more uncertain”.69 We also heard about delayed or late announcements of the details of funding, leaving local authorities in uncertainty, for example the date of 59 Qq 38–43 60 Qq 143–144 61 LGF0001 submission from LGA page 2, LGF0008 submission from Surrey CC paragraphs 7–9 62 Q6 63 LGF0003 submission from DCN paragraph 20; C&AG’s Report, paras 4.4–4.5 64 Business rates relief – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 65 Apply for Council Tax Reduction – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 66 LGF0007 submission from SIGOMA paragraph 4.3; C&AG’s Report, 1.16 67 Qq 9, 13, 14, 16, 39 68 LGF0007 submission from SIGOMA paragraph 4.1; also Q4 69 LGF0001 submission from LGA page 2; Fragmented Funding – report | Local Government Association; Q15 COVID-19: Local government finance 19 the local government provisional finance settlement or of public health allocations.70 For local authorities the financial year 2021–22 starts on 1 April 2021, and local authorities were legally required to set their budgets and council tax levels for 2021–22 by either 1 March 2021 (precepting authorities) or 11 March 2021 (billing authorities).71 Local authority public health grant allocations for 2021–22 were published on 16 March 2021, so authorities were required to set their budgets for that year without full knowledge of their funding.72 We received evidence from DCN expressing concern that business rates appeals related to changes i