The local government finance system in England is undergoing genuinely revolutionary change. A highly-centralised system of funding, with central government grants allocated on the basis of councils' relative spending need, is set to be replaced by a system where councils as a group are...

If the result of the referendum on 23 June leads to the UK leaving the EU, there will be impacts on the UK public finances. This report aims to set out the possible impacts, focusing particularly on the short run, given that the Chancellor wishes to achieve a budget balance by the end of this...

Local government finance in England in the 2010s can be characterised by two major trends: large (albeit varying) cuts to council budgets; and a shift from centralised redistribution of funding towards a greater emphasis on fiscal incentives for revenue growth, most notably via the introduction...

The COVID-19 crisis is having immediate effects on councils' budgets as a result of increases in spending on local services and reductions in income from sales, fees and charges (SFCs) and commercial activities. However, the crisis will cast a longer shadow on councils' finances. First,...

The public health and economic effects of the COVID-19 crisis are creating a perfect storm for councils' finances, simultaneously increasing spending and reducing incomes. For example, personal protective equipment (PPE) and social distancing requirements have increased unit costs for a range of...

The 2010s have been a decade of major financial change for English local government. Not only have funding levels - and hence what councils can spend on local services - fallen significantly; major reforms to the funding system have seen an increasing emphasis on using funding to provide...

Council tax matters. It matters to local government as, at over £31 billion a year, it now makes up over half of its funding for non-education expenditure. It matters for households, for whom the bills take up an average of over 3% of their income. And it matters to central government, which is...