Section 151 officers are urging the government to provide greater certainty over future council funding through multi-year settlements, otherwise “we will see many more section 114 notices”.
Speaking at Room151’s Local Authority Treasurers’ Investment Forum North, Emma Foy, West-Lindsey District Council’s director of corporate services and section 151 officer, said that the government “truly believes” that its local government finance policy statement has given councils a multi-year settlement.
However, “what will happen between now and then and what the next year settlement actually looks like, nobody knows,” she told delegates.
“But where we really need the certainty, where we know the challenges are, are for 2025/26.”
She stressed that “we need that information this winter if we’re going to have any hope of delivering savings, efficiency and income generation, any of the things that we need to do in order to balance the budget for 2025/26, otherwise we’re going to see so many more section 114 notices issued.”
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Government’s ‘hands are tied’
This point was echoed by Richard Ellis, Leeds City Council’s deputy chief financial officer, who added that multi-year settlements over a four- or five-year period would be beneficial.
However, he suggested that this is unlikely to happen until after the next general election.
He told delegates: “I was on a call probably a couple of weeks ago with the local government minister, Lee Rowley, and what he was saying is in terms of that [multi-year settlements] is their hands are tied really, because it’s tied until the next general election in 2024/25.
“And clearly, depending on what happens in which political party will come in, they [the government] will also inevitably be tied down by spending plans.”
Ellis added that chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s announcement last week to bring down public debt may also “tie down” the government’s hands in providing councils with multi-year settlements.
He stated that multi-year settlements would allow for more “effective planning of resources” as local authorities would know how much Revenue Support Grant will be coming in, instead of “guesstimating”.
Foy added to Ellis’ sentiment by stating that long-term budgeting enables s151s to stop “some of those knee jerk reactions” around tough decisions regarding restructures and job losses when officers try to make savings.
I was on a call probably a couple of weeks ago with the local government minister, Lee Rowley, and what he was saying is in terms of that [multi-year settlements] is their hands are tied really, because it’s tied until the next general election in 2024/25.
Settlement ‘too late’
In the same session, Tracy Bingham, Oadby and Wigston’s strategic director and chief investment officer, suggested that having certainty over future funding will enable councils to focus on delivery, but detailed that the settlement is too late in the year to plan.
She told delegates: “I know we had an extra announcement this year, but actually we were no further along with that extra announcement that came sort of, I think maybe end of November into December, what the position is looking like, it really is too late.
“You need to be engaging with members in early autumn. So, that’s sort of September time, if not starting the process earlier.”
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