Introduction
1. London Councils welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Local GovernmentFinance Settlement 2014-15 and the illustrative 2015-16 funding allocations.
2. This settlement raises significant concerns about the transparency, and long-term sustainability of the local government finance system, namely:
- The disproportionate impact of SR2010 and SR2013 on local government,
- The lack of transparency and coherence within the proposals and the disproportionate impact on London boroughs;
- Treatment of the New Homes Bonus Grant for London in 2015-16;
- The lack of funding for Local Welfare Provision in 2015-16 and beyond;·
- The misleading nature of the Revenue Spending Power calculation;
- On-going concerns about the business rates retention system;
- The lack of clarity and certainty around Government’s plans for the Council Tax Referendum principles.
3. London Councils would also like to raise concerns on the timing of the local governmentfinance settlement. For the last two years, the settlement has been announced extremely late. While there may be a number of reasons for this, and it may be helpful for Central Government, it does little to provide local authorities with the level of certainty and funding assurance needed when formulating their budgets, and setting council tax levels, for the following financial year. It is imperative that local authorities have confirmation of their funding allocations as early as possible so that robust and sound business plans can be formulated and implemented. This is particularly important at a time of rapidly reducing resources.