Local Authorities Need a 4% Funding Rise Or Risk Going Backwards
Councillor Stephen Conway, Leader of Wokingham Borough Council
On the 17th December we should hear about the long-awaited provisional Local Government Funding Settlement. The future doesn’t look good for local authorities like mine in Wokingham. For the last decade we have done things right, we have grown our council tax base, built housing, and supported successful businesses to grow and thrive.
Our high-street is vibrant and boasts a variety of independent and chain businesses providing everything our residents need. Sadly, that means we are now looking like we will lose out, the people of Wokingham will lose out.
Local authorities across the country have struggled over the last decade, of every colour and at every tier. No one working in local government can fail to recognise the hard work and stress that have gone into continuing to deliver amazing results against the odds in some cases. Thriving communities and preventative programmes diverting the most at risk from demand-led services – we have done it alongside rising demand. But cost pressures and funding are against us; as inflation in local authority costs greatly exceeds the headline level, and the costs of temporary accommodation and children’s services rise at an alarming rate, it is our non-statutory services that will be put under still more pressure. In Wokingham I know exactly what will be at risk, just as in your own boroughs you know what will happen if a real terms loss of funding is forced upon you.
This is a situation that may only be made worse now by the surprise implementation of three year Recovery Grant which appears unjustifiable. Calculated on the outgoing imperfect basis of the 2025/26 Deprivation Calculation the Recovery Grant eschews the Fair Funding Formula and worsens the situation we now face. For those who will not get it the situation will only deteriorate over the three-year span of the Recovery Grant. We know this will make things worse in Wokingham and so many other places, we do not want to see that and the 17th December represents a vital date for local government.
That is why we formed the Funding Floor Group – calling for a reliable 4% annual increase in funding because without it local authorities are at risk of going backwards. A floor for every tier-one local authority would prevent the cuts we all know we would have to make if we received a real-terms cut in funding. This isn’t greed or jealousy it is because we want to protect what we have achieved. It isn’t a criticism of government that their aims and agenda are wrong, but it is a challenge to them to be clear that what they look like they are proposing is to drive cuts in non-statutory services.
By bringing in a funding floor, local authorities will be protected. It is a simple change that does not require rewriting formulas or shifting government ambitions. It is only a commitment that no council should be forced to go backwards. A funding floor would reinforce the government’s commitment to the missions it set out at the General Election by providing stability at a time of rising pressure. Most importantly, it would reduce the risk of councils being pushed to the brink. A stable, inflation-proof settlement is the best safeguard we have against further Section 114 notices, something none of us wants to see.
Before it is too late, get in touch with your MP and ask them to put pressure on Alison McGovern MP and Steve Reed MP to protect local authorities, we aren’t asking for extra money, only to stand still against inflation. Join us in fighting for residents.
