LGIU summit

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.