Recommendation 26

We asked the Department about the sector’s concerns that government information coming late in the day and leaving little time to finalise plans tended to lead to decisions that were not the best value for money. We also asked when local authorities can expect to see a long-term financial plan for the sector. HM Treasury praised local authority finance directors for driving value for money “based on the information they have at any given time” and recognised that this had been particularly difficult and challenging in the last year. The Department and HM Treasury told us they had heard the desire for greater certainty by local authorities. Neither department made any commitments, however. HM Treasury stressed “the importance of multi-year certainty for good financial management and good financial planning”, but also emphasised that the length of spending reviews were Ministerial decisions.77 70 Q16; LGF0001 submission from LGA page 2, LGF0006 submission from Core Cities paragraph 5.7, LGF0007 submission from SIGOMA paragraph 3.3, LGF0010 submission from CIPFA paragraph 3.9 71 Local Government Finance Act 1992, sections 30(6), 40(5), 116(1) https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/14/ contents and Local Government Association, A councillor’s workbook on local government finance, March 2018 72 Public health grants to local authorities: 2021 to 2022 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 73 LGF0003 submission from DCN paragraph 9; C&AG’s Report, paras 4.2–4.3. 74 Business rates relief boosted with new £1.5 billion pot – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 75 LGF0011 submission from SOLACE page 3; LGF0010 submission from CIPFA paragraph 3.9; LGF0003 submission from SIGOMA, paragraph 4.5 76 Q16; Provisional local government finance settlement: England, 2021 to 2022 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 77 Qq 88, 124, 129–131 20 COVID-19: Local government finance