Thirty-Fourth Report - Local Government Finance System: Overview and Challenges

Too often the Department has failed to act with sufficient urgency to address risks to financial sustainability in the sector, leading to problems becoming entrenched. This Committee warned in 2016 that the local capital finance framework might not be able … Read more Too often the Department has failed to act with sufficient urgency to address risks to financial sustainability in the sector, leading to problems becoming entrenched. This Committee warned in 2016 that the local capital finance framework might not be able to cope with changes in local authority activity, particularly in relation to investment in commercial property. The Department reacted by changing the guidance on local authority investments and on setting aside money to repay debts, but these proved ineffective in addressing key risks. Disappointingly, it took until 2020 before the Treasury took action to restrict borrowing for commercial investment, allowing billions of pounds to be borrowed and spent in the intervening period. In November 2021, the Department started consulting on legislative change to ensure all authorities act prudently and ensure they have the money to repay debts in future. The Department’s consultation was in response to local authority practices which were not fully compliant with the duty to make prudent revenue provision for borrowing. For example, some local authorities excluded a proportion of their debt when calculating their Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP); and some local authorities had used capital receipts instead of revenue resources for MRP. Meanwhile some local authorities have set aside much too little money, and they 6 Local Government Finance System: Overview and Challenges now cannot make up the difference promptly without threatening their financial position. In addition, current proposals to continue to use just guidance to encourage local authority audit committees to have an independent member, rather than make it compulsory, suggest the Department is still over-optimistic about the ability of such ‘soft’ changes to address risks. Recommendation: In its response to this report: • The Department needs to identify key areas of concern regarding the sustainability of local government finance and explain how these will be Show less

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It is still not clear how the government will take a strategic, cross-government approach to rationalising local authority funding, which is particularly important for cross-cutting priorities like net zero and levelling up. Responding to concerns about the burden of bidding … Read more It is still not clear how the government will take a strategic, cross-government approach to rationalising local authority funding, which is particularly important for cross-cutting priorities like net zero and levelling up. Responding to concerns about the burden of bidding for multiple funding pots, the recently-appointed Secretary of State for local government has recognised the need to simplify and rationalise the funding available to local authorities. This is welcome recognition that the current situation does not represent value for money. Sector analysis has previously highlighted the numerous grants available to local authorities in any one year. During 2020–21, twenty-two grant funds were available for net zero work alone, many of which local authorities had to compete with each other for. While competing for funding can allow funding to be prioritised for those areas where it can be most effective, it also has the potential to create winners and losers with local people missing out. The Department is considering whether to review its approach to rationalising grants within the levelling up funds for which it is directly responsible. However, we have highlighted the need for better cross-government coordination many times before and we lack confidence that central government will join up to ensure local government funding decisions take account of the overall role of, and burdens on, local government. Recommendation: In its response to this report, the Department and the Treasury should set out what changes will be required to deliver a strategic, cross- government approach to rationalising funding for local government, especially for major strategic priorities. Local Government Finance System: Overview and Challenges 9 1 Risks to the sector Show less

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This Committee recently recommended the Department should set out a detailed plan and timetable for getting local audit timeliness back on track. We also recommended the Department explain how it intended to work with the Department for Business, Energy and … Read more This Committee recently recommended the Department should set out a detailed plan and timetable for getting local audit timeliness back on track. We also recommended the Department explain how it intended to work with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to set up the new system leader for local government audit, the Auditing, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA), and how it would address the pressing need for effective system leadership while ARGA was being established.43 The Department agreed with our recommendations, however we felt its response lacked detail on specific actions capable of addressing the urgent issues in local audit.44 In December 2021, the Department published a range of measures which aim to support improved audit timeliness and the wider audit market, though some are still being considered following a consultation in summer 2021 while others are subject to further consultation or may require legislation to be passed.45 These measures aim to provide a whole system response and include guidance and training for audit firms, additional funding to support local bodies with the cost of strengthening their financial reporting, measures to improve local authority accounts, reviewing opportunities to reduce some of the accounting and audit requirements and extending the deadline for publishing audited local authority accounts in future years. The Department committed to publishing an update on these measures as part of its response to the summer 2021 consultation.46 37 (LFS0001/ICAEW), pages 3 and 4 38 Committee of Public Accounts, Financial sustainability of local authorities, Fiftieth Report of Session 2017–19, HC 970, 4 July 2018; Committee of Public Accounts, Local government governance and accountability, Ninety- Seventh Report of Session 2017–19, HC 2077, 15 May 2019; Committee of Public Accounts, Local auditor reporting on local government in England, Eleventh Report of Session 2021–22, HC 171, 14 July 2021; Q105 39 Show less

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In 2018, this Committee recommended the Department should review the way local authority audit committees operate in examining and challenging local risks to financial sustainability.47 In 2019 this Committee highlighted that 27% of external auditors did not agree that audit … Read more In 2018, this Committee recommended the Department should review the way local authority audit committees operate in examining and challenging local risks to financial sustainability.47 In 2019 this Committee highlighted that 27% of external auditors did not agree that audit committees provided sufficient assurance about authorities’ governance arrangements.48 CIPFA had told the Committee “We think audit committees are stronger if they have independent members” but that “We don’t have the ability to set mandatory guidance on audit committees.”49 In 2020, an independent review of the oversight of local audit and the transparency of local authority financial reporting, carried out in line with Committee recommendations from 2018 and 2019, highlighted “a potential weakness in the way in which audit outcomes are considered and presented to both the local authority and the public”, in part because local authority audit committees “mostly lack independent, technically qualified members”.50 We received evidence from the ICAEW stating weaknesses in audit committees “were a major contributory factor in the financial management failures” at the three councils where Public Interest Reports were issued recently and arguing “the government should make appointing independent members [to audit committees] a statutory requirement, as it is already in Wales.”51 When we raised the statutory requirement point with the Department, it agreed with us that it was an extremely sensible idea to have an independent person sitting on audit committees.52 Yet the Department’s consultation proposal is simply to have CIPFA strengthen its guidance. In fact, the Department’s consultation said it is still only considering as an option making it a statutory requirement for councils to have an audit committee at all.53 Potential to improve oversight Show less

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The Department did not act with sufficient urgency, nor has it set out an overarching plan and timetable, to address the severe and pressing problems with the local government audit market. Significantly delayed audits are a serious gap in local authorities’ accountability to taxpayers and risk undermining public confidence and …

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The Department is making some welcome improvements to its oversight of the sector although it remains to be seen what concrete difference these changes will make. Over time the Department has improved its analysis of financial Local Government Finance System: Overview and Challenges 7 risk and its engagement with local …

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We are concerned the Department is worryingly complacent in its view that the spending review will put local services on a sustainable footing. The spending review provided an extra £4.8 billion, £1.6 billion per year for the period 2022– 23 to 2024–25, along with assumed council tax rises (although lower …

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The sector is still facing uncertainty and stop-gap financial arrangements until such time as the longer-term reforms are put in place. The sector is once again faced with a single-year settlement for the 2022–23 finance year. It has now had three one-year settlements, preceded by a four year settlement full …

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On the basis of a Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (the Department) and HM Treasury (the Treasury) about local government finance in England.1 The Department is responsible for working across government to support the Treasury to …

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This Committee highlighted in 2016 that the Department appeared complacent about the risks from local authorities increasingly acting as property developers and commercial landlords with the primary aim of generating income. It also pointed out a risk that the local capital finance framework might not be able to cope with …

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Where a local authority borrows, it must set aside money each year to repay the debt, so the costs do not fall wholly on future council taxpayers; this is known as Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP). MRP ensures councils reflect the cost of borrowing 16 C&AG’s Report, p. 39; Committee of …

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When we asked about a potential ballooning effect due to local authorities continually delaying and deferring payments on borrowing the Department told us the measures being consulted on would ensure that local authorities are paying MRP from revenue rather than other sources, and their MRP covers all their assets.33 We …

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The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) noted that while the local audit market is in crisis, government’s response to date has not recognised 25 Committee of Public Accounts, Local authority investment in commercial property, Eleventh Report of Session 2019–21, HC 312, 13 July 2020, para 15. …

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The Department’s Accounting Officer is responsible for the overall accountability system for local government, including providing assurance that it is working effectively and understanding risk, both across the system and in relation to individual councils.54 The Department has improved aspects of its oversight of local government finance since 2010–11, for …

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This Committee recommended in 2016 that the Department should strengthen its understanding of the scale and nature of authorities’ commercial activities, ensure that the purpose and geographical location of capital spending can be ascertained, and strengthen its use of quantitative data to ensure it understands risks across the sector relating …

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The Department told us that from April 2022, it will regularly collect much fuller information on local authority commercial property, companies and financial investments, the latter two of which it described as “an obvious risk”.62 The information on property investment will include location, which the Department acknowledged “in hindsight …

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The Department told us about a policy paper it had recently published about its framework for detecting, managing and preventing risk.65 In relation to concrete actions, the Department told us it was “looking at the statutory powers that we have to cap borrowing” and the policy paper also says the …

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The spending review announced on 27 October 2021, covering 2022–23 to 2024–25, provided £4.8 billion (£1.6 billion each year) of new grant funding for local authorities.68 It also announced that council tax would be able to rise by 2% each year without triggering a council tax referendum.69 In addition, authorities …

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The Department told us the spending review “gives local government, looking at the sectoral level, the resources that it needs” to respond to rising demand and cost pressures, and “leaves the sector in a sustainable position.”73 The Department and the Treasury stressed the work carried out to underpin this conclusion. …

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When we pressed witnesses about the fragile state of adult social care services and continuing demographic pressure, the Department agreed the demographic pressures from both working-age and older people are quite significant but listed three sources of funding to sustain “business-as-usual social care”. These were rises in council tax (including …

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We have previously been critical of the Department for Education’s understanding of costs within children’s social care services, and we have not yet been reassured that funding for local authorities to support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, and care leavers who were formerly unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, is sufficient.84 When pressed, the Department …

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This Committee noted in 2016 that local authorities were facing an uncertain environment due to the Department considering further significant changes to local authority funding.86 In 2018 the Committee highlighted the use of short-term funding arrangements since 2016 and a series of proposed reforms awaiting decisions; the same points arose …

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We have previously concluded that the implications of reductions in service spending for service users and taxpayers are unclear. We have made several recommendations that the Department should work to improve its information on and understanding of pressures on services.91 The funding formula currently in use, and which includes measures …

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The spending review confirmed the timing of the next and future business rates revaluations and stated the government would consult on the possible introduction of an Online Sales Tax to partially replace business rates.93 However, much remained undecided. When we challenged the Department on decisions to come, it noted that …

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We have previously recommended that reform of local government finance should take place in a measured fashion to ensure the new arrangements are fit for purpose and built to last. We recommended that a stable funding environment, ideally based on a multi-year settlement, is established as a bridging mechanism while …

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A Local Government Association review found 448 individual grants to local authorities between 2015–16 and 2018–19, and in any one of those years local authorities received around 250 grants.103 Twenty-two grant funds were available for net zero work alone in 2020–21, many of which were competitive funds with limited delivery …

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The new Secretary of State told the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee that he recognises there are too many funding pots, with potentially overlapping criteria. He concluded “There needs to be some simplification and rationalisation” of funding arrangements and has asked the Department to lead on this.107 When we …

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The Treasury told us the balance between formula and competitive funding should be different for different areas of government activity, giving levelling up and social care as examples of areas where formula funding should predominate. In contrast, the Treasury felt that net zero is an area where it is the …

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We noted the interactions between different government policy areas and the “tab” that ultimately falls to local government, including, for example, the impact of changes to health spending or universal credit.111 The Treasury said that, as part of the spending review, it had discussed those settlements for other departments and …

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