SIGOMA Chair speaks at LGiU Summit
Posted on July 24, 2024
Cllr Sir Stephen Houghton spoke on the second panel - "What the sector needs for a sustainable future".
The SIGOMA Chair raised the 3 major issues with the local government finance system:
- That there isn’t enough money in the system.
- That existing funding isn’t distributed fairly.
- That there is no certainty in the system.
Cllr Houghton said that we need to immediately:
- Put more money in the system - at least the £6.2bn identified by the LGA as urgently required
- We need to distribute existing funding more fairly
- We need to return return stability to the system through multi-year settlements published in a timely manner, not at the last minute
- Consolidate funding pots and give councils greater flexibility with how grant funding is spent
- End of competitive bidding for local government funding pots
- Provide clarity about funds such as the Household Support Fund and UKSPF before they are about to run out.
Cllr Houghton talked about longer term solutions including:
- Taking the politics of distribution by handing allocations over to an independent body: experts not ministers.
- Restructuring the whole system by detaching business rates – allowing changes to business rates/equivalent without impacting council funding.
- Academic review of duties vs funding including a review of Council Tax, new sources of income, new powers and responsibilities.
Read more about the event, here.