NALC Responds to Government's Finance Plans

Bulletin – 5th October

NALC Responds to Government's Finance Plans

The Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has published its plans for local government finance. The plans come from a technical consultation paper on the 2018/19 Local Government Finance Settlement which describes the Government’s proposals intended approach for the third year of the multi-year settlement.

The document set outs the proposed approach to the 2018-19 settlement, which includes:

outlines of the third year of the multi-year settlement offer for those councils that accepted the offer, and arrangements for those that did not
outlines of the method for distributing New Homes Bonus funding following implementation of reforms announced at the time of the 2017-18 provisional settlement and a proposal for further incentives to support the delivery of housing growth
outlines of the Government’s proposals for the council tax referendum principles for 2018-19
confirmation of the approach being taken for adjusting business rates tariff and top-ups to cancel out, as far as is practicable, the impact of the 2017 business rates revaluation on local authorities’ income 8
outlines of the approach to Mayoral Combined Authorities precepts in 2018-19
outlines of the approach for allocating settlement funding where a fire authority transfers from a county council in accordance with the provisions of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, as amended by the Policing and Crime Act 2017 and the implications for the Adult Social Care council tax precept.

Responding to the publication of DCLG’s technical consultation on the local government finance settlement, Cllr Sue Baxter, NALC chairman, said;“I had a very positive and constructive meeting with local government minister Marcus Jones MP to discuss local parish and town council precepts in advance of the 2018-19 Local Government Finance Settlement Technical Consultation Paper. England’s 10,000 local councils are continuing to grow and deliver more services, are increasing transparency and engagement with local people, and improving how they operate – all points which I am pleased the minister recognises.

Fiscal responsibility in particular remains high on the agenda for local councils, with just under half of councils demonstrating restraint by increasing the precept – their small share of council tax – by more than 2 per cent this year. According to our recent research, for a third of councils this was due to increased costs such as employer National Insurance and loss of council tax support grants, and for 34 per cent this was due to taking on a new service or having assets transferred from principal councils. Our analysis also shows that two thirds of local councils are not solely reliant on the precept and use other sources of funding to invest in projects to improve their area.

“While total precepts account for just 1.6 per cent of total council tax – £479 million in 2017/18 – local councils actually contribute and invest around £2 billion each year to local areas and economies through councillor volunteer hours, grants and other income and their land and property assets.

“I look forward to continuing to work with the government on the important issue of parish funding, including exploring ways in which we can together help communities to help themselves through flexible and diverse funding, and we will be providing further evidence through this consultation of how councils are responding to the financial challenges faced by local communities and public services.”

Revised Legal Topic Note #70: The Local Environment

NALC has published an updated Legal Topic Note (LTN) now entitled “The Local Environment” (succeeding “Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005”) with refreshed content, A copy of therevised LTN is attached.

Jonathan Owen, NALC CEO, writes

Labour Party Conference 2017

The chairman of our Larger Councils’ Committee, Cllr Kevin Wilson, had a number of positive and encouraging meetings with key opposition figures at the recent Labour Party Conference in Brighton, including Jim McMahon MP, shadow local government minister, Andy Burnham, metro mayor of Greater Manchester, Steve Rotherham, metro mayor of Liverpool City Region. Kevin was also active on the fringe circuit including an event on Coalfield Communities where he was able to highlight work the Larger Councils’ Committee was doing to network parish and town councils in these areas

Key points from the conference speech by Andrew Gwynne MP, shadow secretary of state for communities and local government, included: we cannot empower our communities if we impoverish them; austerity is not working for local government and a Labour government would put council funding on a sustainable footing and be £1.5 billion pounds better off; deliver a renaissance of local government including a Bill to rebuild local services, give councils greater powers to deliver services themselves, extend transparency and freedom of information rules and end the two tier work force with a fair wage clause; empowering communities and rebuilding local institutions and local services;

I was particularly interested to hear the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn MP mention devolution of power in his speech, saying: "thekind of democracy that we should be aiming for is one where people have a continuing say in how society is run, how their workplace is run, how their local schools or hospitals are run....That means increasing the public accountability and democratization of local services that Andrew Gwynne was talking about on Monday....power devolved to the community, not monopolised in Westminster and Whitehall."

Is Time Running Out to Apply for NeighbourhoodPlanning Grants?

You can receive grants and support to help you complete your neighbourhood plan. There are twotypes of support available in the 2015-2018 programme:

• Grants of up to £9,000

• Technical support packages provided by AECOM, and an additional grant package of £6,000

(bringing the grant ceiling amount available to £15,000).

Changes to the final year of the 2015-2018 programme

There have been two updates to the final of the year of the Neighbourhood Planning programme:

• Modifying your plan after it has come into force: Groups can now apply for funding to modifytheir plan, irrespective of whether they have already claimed their full grant allocation of£9,000 (or £15,000 for a priority group).

• Groups undertaking site assessments and housing site allocations: Groups who are undertaking

a site assessment for a site allocation, OR groups who are allocating sites for housing or mixeddevelopment can now be considered complex – allowing them to apply for additional supportfor complex groups (technical support and grants of up to £15,000).

Neighbourhood Planning programme post-2018

DCLG has announced it is expecting to continue the Neighbourhood Planning programme pastMarch 2018. Confirmation of the details of the new programme of support will be revealed in duecourse. In anticipation of this new programme, please take note of the closure dates for TechnicalSupport and Grants below.

Grants

All groups are eligible to apply for total grant funding of up to £9,000 over the three-yearprogramme from 2015-18. You can apply for a grant to develop a website, put together a projectplan, undertake a local survey, develop your evidence base, or hire a planning expert.

Closing date

The Neighbourhood Planning Grants will close on 31stJanuary 2018, with the expenditure deadlinebeing 31stMarch 2018.

Additional grant package

An additional grant package of £6,000 (bringing the grant ceiling amount available to £15,000) isalso available to groups that have complex issues.

Final submission date

All Technical Support applications have a final submission date of 31stMarch 2018.