Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
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Contents
Introduction 4 The impact of the 2010 Spending Review
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How has AnyCounty managed within reduced resources?
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The council’s positive impact on growth and jobs
9
The outlook for 2015/16 and beyond
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How the LGA’s proposed local government reforms help secure services and growth for AnyCounty residents
15
Conclusion 20
Introduction
The Local Government Association’s (LGA) Spending Round submission made a number of proposals to help councils deliver better public services and promote growth. It detailed some of the savings that had already been made by a typical “AnyCouncil” and their impact on residents, AnyCouncil’s contribution to local growth and how the LGA’s proposals could help it to drive local growth and contribute to national economic recovery. In light of the Spending Round announcements, and the launch of the ‘Future funding outlook’ report, we have updated this analysis to show the most up-todate forecast of pressures that councils face in the foreseeable future. There are, however, important differences between the experiences of the different types of councils, and this paper, along with its sister “AnyDistrict Council” and “AnySingleTier Council” papers, outlines the experience to date of councils of various types. This paper focusses on the impact that the implementation of the LGA’s report ‘Rewiring public services: Rejuvenating democracy’ (henceforth ‘the report’) might have on “AnyCounty”.
services split between district and county levels. Most shire counties are largely rural in nature, but many contain large urban centres too. County councils look after services such as waste disposal, adult and children’s social care, education and libraries in an area. District councils are responsible for services including social housing, planning and waste collection, universal services such as leisure centres and culture, and the provision of local council tax support and housing benefit. All councils face expenditure pressures, but these are often felt more acutely in county councils due to geographic and demographic factors, and the spread of their budgets between the different types of services they provide. The funding environment for counties is quite different from that of other types of authority, particularly with regard to the New Homes Bonus and business rates income, where the district/county split of the funds is 80/20. There are also relatively few services provided by counties which have the ability to cover their own costs through income generation.
AnyCounty is a typical county council in three principal respects: the funding reductions1, County councils, on the whole, tend to cover the level of deprivation and the growth in the a larger geographic area and represent larger local economy are all in the mid-range. populations than unitary authorities. Unlike unitary authorities, county councils do not provide the full range of local government 1 Funding reductions have varied according to the level of grant services, with statutory and discretionary dependency.
Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
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Our analysis of AnyCounty shows: • The financial impact of the 2010 Spending Review on the average county, contrasting the position in 2010/11 with 2014/15. • The steps the council has used to manage the financial impact. • The positive impact of the council on local growth and jobs. • The financial impact on the council of a further 10 per cent real terms reduction in grant funding in 2015/16 for most local government services2. • The potential impact of some of the measures proposed in the report on AnyCounty’s ability to protect local public services and promote growth.
2 Due to publication deadlines, further announcements made in relation to “Investing in Britain’s Future” on Thursday 27 June 2013 are not reflected in this paper.
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Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
The impact of the 2010 Spending Review In 2014/15, AnyCounty will have revenue funding of £543 million (excluding the Dedicated Schools Grant). There have however been marked changes since 2010/11:
services for vulnerable clients mean that AnyCounty will have had to take £85 million out of gross non-care budgets in the four years to 2014/15.
• A real terms reduction of government grant from 2010/11 to 2014/15 of 30 per cent.
• A total of £12 million in one-off reserves is being used to mitigate the funding reductions. This breaks down as £6.8 million in 2012/13, £2.7 million in 2013/14 and £2.5 million in 2014/15. AnyCounty recognises that the use of reserves in this way is not sustainable.
• The council froze its element of the council tax in 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14. • Investment income will have fallen by 46 per cent from £1.9 million to £1.0 million a year. • The council has been allocated ringfenced funding of £21 million a year for public health responsibilities. • Funding cuts, a three-year council tax freeze, inflation and rising demand on
• A gap is opening up on the demand for services and funding available to provide them which makes it impossible to balance the budget in the future by making incremental budget reductions. Looking ahead, more fundamental service withdrawal and reductions will be required.
There is a growing gap between income and expenditure – a 10 per cent real terms cut in government grant in 2015/16, and projecting forward based on past trends Projected funding gap, 2011-2020 (£m) 680 660 640 620
Funding gap
600 Net expenditure
580 560
Funding
540 520
20 9/ 20 1
19 20
18 /
8 /1 20 17
7 /1 20 16
16 15 / 20
15 14 / 20
14 13 / 20
13 12 / 20
20
11 /
12
500
Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
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How has AnyCounty managed within reduced resources? In common with most other councils, AnyCounty has cut costs through a significant programme of savings. While AnyCounty continues to look for every saving it can, even before the 2010 Spending Review it had already achieved most of the obvious “quick wins” such as cutting councillor allowances and reducing refreshments at meetings, as well as more substantial savings from outsourcing, consolidating and reducing back office functions. Since the 2010 Spending Review it has had to undertake more radical savings action and service transformation. AnyCounty has delivered nearly £100 million of savings from, for example: • Rationalisation of its estate and substantial cuts to the capital programme in order to reduce capital financing charges, giving an annual saving of £3 million in addition to an anticipated £18 million in capital receipts. • Shared services with neighbouring authorities; in particular the internal audit function is now shared between AnyCounty and two neighbouring authorities for a total saving of £0.4 million shared between the three participants. • Substantial progress towards shared services for protective services. It is expected that this will save AnyCounty a minimum of £1 million. • Outsourcing of more services, ensuring service standards are maintained in a cost effective way. AnyCounty has for example outsourced its on-street parking service for a £0.3 million saving.
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• Contracts are framed differently; efficiency savings are built into new contracts together with added flexibilities to ensure changes in the future can be achieved. • Close integration with local NHS organisations to release efficiencies and obtain the greatest benefits from joint investments aimed at maximising people’s independence and helping people through short term crises. There has been a range of measures to reduce workforce costs: • Reduction of core staffing by 23 per cent since 2010/11. This has been achieved partly through a recruitment freeze and natural wastage. • Pay restraint, including a national pay freeze for each of the last three years. It has not implemented across the board additional pay reductions, but it has reduced the Chief Executive’s pay and members’ allowances. • Reduction of management costs by 25 per cent through the implementation of a flatter management structure. Local people will have seen changes to services, for example: • Street lights on non-main roads have been turned off after midnight, saving the council a third of its energy bills. • There have been cuts to school transport and the council no longer offers universal free transport post-16.
Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
• Widespread use of reablement services, service remodelling and the use of technology to improve social care. • Twelve bus routes have been withdrawn entirely due to a reduction in bus subsidies, with a further 60 seeing a reduction in frequency. • Opening hours at facilities, such as libraries and public record offices, have been reduced. • Charges have been increased for some services, and charges have been introduced for services which were formerly free, such as charging for non-statutory waste at recycling centres. • AnyCounty’s funding for the arts has been cut by 50 per cent over the course of the Spending Review period. These savings have been achieved at the same time as prioritising local business and private sector job growth.
Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
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The council’s positive impact on growth and jobs Promoting growth in the local economy is a top priority for councils – through investment in infrastructure projects, supporting new developments, inward investment schemes, support to small businesses and employment support schemes. On the other hand the reduction in AnyCounty’s budget and employment will have had a negative impact on the local economy and that of neighbouring councils into which its economic activity spreads. During the four year 2010 Spending Review period, AnyCounty has taken a range of measures including: • Development of transport strategies and support with infrastructure plans. An improvement scheme to one of the main roads through AnyCounty has cost £150 million, to which AnyCounty contributed £20 million. It is estimated that this will bring a boost of £450 million to the local economy. • Innovative use of funds to advance infrastructure development for new development. The AnyCounty Engineering Centre has incubated over 50 start-ups, which have created over 200 skilled jobs, delivered 10,000 training days and engaged with over 10,000 students. • Capital Investment of over £90 million to support high-profile local business and transport hub schemes.
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• Working closely with the local enterprise partnership (LEP), ensuring that AnyCounty’s growth priorities are reflected in the LEP’s activities. AnyCounty has particularly encouraged technology-led growth through the AnyCounty Masterplan which involves the creation of a “High Performance Technologies business ecosystem” with the potential to provide 4,000 new jobs. • Continuing to foster strong civic and economic links with AnyProvince, an international municipal partner, bringing inward investment to AnyCounty and opening up an export market for AnyCounty businesses. • Launching a Local Authority Mortgage Scheme, using underutilised reserve balances to support the local housing market. This allows first-time buyers to access mortgage rates close to those available if they had a 25 per cent deposit. • Working closely with its district councils in using New Homes Bonus receipts to deliver affordable rural housing. This not only provides social, environmental and community cohesion benefits but secures future funding through additional New Homes Bonus receipts which can in turn be reinvested in local priorities. • Launching an arms-length company which owns a diverse property portfolio that can be used to drive growth in priority places throughout AnyCounty.
Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
The picture so far is one of far-reaching efficiency measures to reform and protect services alongside investment in the local economy. Is this sustainable with further reductions in 2015/16?
Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
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The outlook for 2015/16 and beyond A 10 per cent real terms reduction in grant funding for 2015/16 reduces the resources available to AnyCounty by around £18 million compared to 2014/15, partly offset by a £3 million increase in retained business rates. This represents a funding gap of 11.5 per cent by 2015/16, the difference between the projected growth in income and expenditure. This gap grows to 20.9 per cent by 2019/20. AnyCounty’s funding pressures are being offset by the announced NHS funding for the pooled social care pot. However, the council has not received any particular detail on how the new funding will be distributed, and what the conditions attached will be yet. While the extra funding might help AnyCounty deal with the immediate pressures 2015/16 presents, it is not enough to alleviate further pressures up to 2019/20. In addition, the council is facing an increased pension cost of £3 million to manage the National Insurance impacts of changes to State Earnings Related Pensions from 2016/17 (and a similar amount for local schools which will reduce the amount available from the Dedicated Schools Grant for teaching).
councils in the area has taken a different approach to its local scheme. Some have applied discounts equal to the amount of funding received, but some have applied discounts in excess of this. AnyCounty must bear some of the cost of the latter, as well as the schemes’ impact on council tax collection rates. In addition, AnyCounty must bear some of the risk of demographic changes without having significant power itself to change the council tax support schemes themselves. AnyCounty receives 20 per cent of New Homes Bonus payments and 9 per cent of business rates growth and therefore cannot rely on these sources of income to close the funding gap. The above pressures create two major risks – to the provision of local services and to local growth and jobs. The chart overleaf shows the growing proportion of AnyCounty’s funding spent on adult social care, children’s services and waste through the decade if these services are “protected”.
AnyCounty faces an additional loss of revenue, and source of risk, as its council tax bills must be discounted in line with its districts’ local council tax support schemes. While AnyCounty was involved in the consultation process over each of the schemes in its area, each of the district
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Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
Money available for services, 2011-2020 100% 90%
43%
37%
32%
27%
80% 70% 60% 50%
6%
40% 30%
7%
7%
46%
42%
7% Waste management
49%
0%
Adult social care
39%
20% 10%
Money available for all other services
Children’s social care 13%
14%
15%
16%
2011/12
2014/15
2017/18
2019/20
Demand for adult social care services is growing at the same time as the resources available to AnyCounty fall. This means that spending on adult social care, as a proportion of total funding, grows from 39 per cent to 49 per cent between 2011/12 and 2019/20. Correspondingly there will be a reduction in the funding available for other services from 43 per cent to 27 per cent of the total budget by the end of the decade2. Service pressures are amplified by the geographic and demographic circumstances of AnyCounty in the following ways: • AnyCounty has a higher proportion of older residents than the England average and therefore spends a higher amount per head on adult social care. Care services have already been cut to the statutory minimum, with only those clients whose needs are classed as substantial or critical receiving care. • AnyCounty has a high proportion of care self-funders. If the reforms proposed in the Dilnot report3 were implemented, there
would potentially be many more users of local authority care services, but this is very much an unknown quantity. • While AnyCounty has a mix of urban and rural areas, its population is widely dispersed. This means that the unit cost of many services such as home care is higher than that in largely urban areas because transport costs are higher. • AnyCounty is responsible for a large strategic road network covering a wide area. Its highways maintenance budgets are stretched to breaking point with the result that road conditions are deteriorating. • AnyCounty contains many small villages and towns with their own schools. The average school size is smaller than that in more urban areas. AnyCounty cannot achieve the same level of efficiency savings and economies of scale in education support and schools improvement that urban areas can.
3 LGA internal figures on the funding outlook. 4 The Dilnot Commission Report on social care, 2011.
Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
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In AnyCounty, more cuts mean a risk to the council’s support for the local economy resulting from, for example: • The use of reserves4 to reduce the scale of funding reductions on services rather than using them for investing in infrastructure and economic growth. • An end to discretionary schemes to tackle market failure in the housing market (in particular the local authority mortgage scheme). • Less investment in broadband infrastructure and digital inclusion programmes in places such as local libraries. Further cuts are not sustainable without an even greater impact on local services than those described above – efficiencies are harder to find and much more fundamental change is required.
AnyCounty is approaching a tipping point where it is considering further service reductions and, more starkly, perhaps having to withdraw completely from certain services. AnyCounty will not make decisions about 2015/16 until after the indicative local government finance settlement, which will reflect the 2013 Spending Round announcement. But it has begun considering the worst-case scenario and looking at ways to either raise income or reduce services to close the potential £18 million gap, including raising council tax. Some of the options that may need to be considered and the estimated savings are set out in the table below:
Service area/income stream
Measure
Saving £m
Arts and leisure
Reduce subsidies to zero
0.2
Local council tax support scheme
Reduce funding by 20%
6.4
Children’s centres
Close 13 centres
2.5
Highways and roads maintenance
Reduce expenditure by 15%
4.4
Voluntary sector
Reduce expenditure to zero
0.7
Council tax
Increase by a further 1%
3.0
Local bus subsidies
Reduce expenditure to zero
5.7
Libraries
Close six libraries
1.0
Street lighting
Turn off 25,000 lights (50%) midnight to 5.00am
0.4
5
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Some councils will be building up reserves to manage the uncertainty in the localisation of council tax benefit and volatility in business rate income.
Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
Service area/income stream
Measure
Saving £m
Planning service
Reduce expenditure by a further 20%
0.6
Non-statutory schools transport
Remove for 1,000 pupils
0.6
Back office*
Achieve a further 5% efficiency
2.0
Total impact of all measures
27.5
*AnyCounty believes that a further 5 per cent reduction in back office services is ambitious and risks knock-on effects on frontline services. AnyCounty has made significant savings already and the LGA’s model already includes an additional 5 per cent efficiencies by 2015/16. So there are significant risks to both services and growth in 2015/16 – what’s the solution?
Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
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How the LGA’s proposed local government reforms help secure services and growth for AnyCounty residents AnyCounty will face a funding gap of 11.5 per cent by 2015/16, the difference between projected income and expenditure. This gap grows to 20.9 per cent by 2019/20.
The freedom to raise council tax by the retail price index in 2015/16 would raise around £8.5 million in that year and every subsequent year.
Some of the ways in which the proposals in the LGA’s new model could make it easier for AnyCounty to cope with this growing funding gap are outlined below.
The annual cost to the council of the single person discount is increasingly hard to justify – reducing the discount for non-pensioner households from 25 per cent to 20 per cent would raise £3.8 million a year.
Independent local government, revitalising democracy The new model seeks more independence for local government, including the freedom for councils to set council tax without intervention by Ministers. AnyCounty council tax has been frozen in 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14, largely in response to the freeze grants offered and the threat of a local referendum. By the end of the Spending Review period, AnyCounty will have received around £47 million in council tax freeze grants: over £32 million for the four years from 2011/12, another £8 million in 2012/13, and a further £3.5 million in each of 2013/14 and 2014/15. They estimate the “unfunded” element of the freeze will be £11.4 million – that is the part not funded by central government’s council tax freeze grant.
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The council consults on its budget and could allow local people to shape the way in which these additional resources that are raised through council tax are invested in services and growth. Under the LGA’s model of independent local government, AnyCounty’s income will be clearly linked to local economic development, giving a clear incentive for AnyCounty to encourage growth as detailed below.
Economic growth and welfare reform AnyCounty is part of an ambitious local enterprise partnership. A major devolution of growth funding will enable the partnership to provide more targeted and effective support for local growth. The partnership has plans to drive productivity and enterprise by stimulating
Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
greater innovation, and to create an economic environment which will support the competitiveness of businesses and social enterprises, to encourage new business growth and improve productivity. The partnership is considering ways to ensure entrepreneurs and small businesses have access to credit. There is local ambition to take a leading role on skills – to open up more opportunities for disengaged young people, challenge the education sector to provide the skills employers need, create apprenticeships and target mainstream skills funding towards growth opportunities in the local economy. This would allow the local enterprise partnership, AnyCounty and the local district councils to ensure that mainstream skills investment is driving growth in key sectors and attracting more private investment in higher level skills. Research is already underway to enhance local labour market intelligence and identify the future skills needs of local employers. AnyCounty would like to go further still in promoting growth, and would welcome the chance to enjoy some of the freedoms given to cities under City Deals. Localised youth contracts would allow better support for young people currently not in education, employment or training, where many are currently excluded from the national programme. AnyCounty also has ambitions to develop an apprenticeship hub and a local skills funding model. AnyCounty believes that it would meet the criteria for a local growth deal, as it has significantly contributed to growth as described on page 9; it has ambition to develop further growth initiatives, and along with the LEP has a clear vision and a clearly articulated strategy to deliver local growth.
AnyCounty has all of the characteristics that give the cities with City Deals the capacity to positively influence growth when they are given control over the levers of growth – scale and capacity, stability, productivity and access to higher education and transport links. City Deals have huge potential but they are not the only way in which growth can be encouraged, and AnyCounty would welcome the opportunity to access policies from a “localism menu”, with local policies to meet local needs. AnyCounty has been disappointed by the size of the Local Growth Fund. The £2 billion fund announced in the Spending Round is significantly smaller than the sum proposed in Lord Heseltine’s report6. In addition, most of the pot is made up of repurposed local authority funding, with little genuine devolution from central government departments.
Adult social care and health, caring for the vulnerable The new model argues that place-based public service budgets are the main mechanism for addressing local social care and health service requirements. The Community Budget pilots looking at new ways of funding, organising and delivering services in four areas have shown that there is the potential to make savings across the public sector in the medium term while at the same time improving outcomes. Although a direct comparison is not possible, AnyCounty is looking at the experience in the Essex place-based Community Budget pilot. The Whole Essex Community Budget will see public sector partners work together, delivering services that improve the lives of 6 Lord Heseltine’s review ’No stone unturned: in pursuit of growth’, 2012.
Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
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Essex residents, whilst also cutting waste and duplication. The core idea of placebased public service budgets is that a broad range of partners should agree common outcomes and then pool resources and join up activities to achieve those outcomes. Important dimensions are improving quality, efficient use of public money, promoting choice, localism, enabling civil society and prevention of social and economic problems. The Essex pilot identified new ways of providing services that deliver improved services for local residents and save £414 million across the public sector over the next five years – with about £127 million in cashable savings and £217 million in economic, fiscal and social benefits. These savings are long-term and accrue across all public sector partners. The Essex pilot has seen £33 million of savings for Essex County Council alone. Ernst & Young7 modelled the potential net benefit of three whole place themes across each of the four whole place Community Budget pilots: health and social care, work and skills; and troubled families. They estimated the steady state savings reached in year five at between 4 and 8 per cent of the expenditure on these services across the public sector. They noted however that community budgeting is not a quick fix and the realisation of savings depends on the presence of both local and national factors. The savings are a way of managing spending reductions already in the system. AnyCounty has looked into joining-up with the local Jobcentre Plus (JCP) in order to arrive at a place-based public service budget-style partnership agreement to provide comprehensive support to out of 7
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Whole Place Community Budgets – a review of the potential for aggregation, Ernst & Young, January 2013.
work individuals. However, this has proven to be difficult, as the JCP was reserved about the idea both because it felt there were insufficient incentives, as well as a difference in objectives. AnyCounty was unable to resolve these cultural and communication issues on its own initiative. AnyCounty is facing a demographic pressure of 3 per cent in its budget for over 65 adult social care in 2013/14, and estimates similar levels of demographic pressure in future years. Like most councils8, it has set eligibility thresholds at substantial/critical and it is getting much harder to find efficiencies within social care alone. It would like to see the local NHS investing in locally determined adult social care priorities that promote integration and better health and care outcomes, as determined by the health and wellbeing board. AnyCounty welcomes the Spending Round announcement on additional NHS funding for social care. However, there are concerns the money might come with too many strings attached, or may not be enough to close the gap.
Children’s services, nurturing our future There may be opportunities for a more joined-up approach to children and young people’s services too. AnyCounty is on target to save £2 million and improve outcomes from its early intervention strategy for children’s services. Although there is good partnership working with local schools there is scope to develop even stronger partnerships and co-invest in more targeted 8 Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) Budget Survey, 2013 – 87 per cent of councils are now at the substantial/critical threshold.
Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
early intervention and strengthen the important role schools play in safeguarding. AnyCounty would like to make the most of the transfer of responsibility for public health for children to local government by ensuring the local health and wellbeing board is strengthened to keep children’s wellbeing at the top of the local agenda.
Financial sustainability, supporting people and places A key part of the report is local control over income, including council tax. It is estimated that a council tax referendum in AnyCounty would cost £0.1 million, AnyCounty has not raised its council tax above the referendum threshold as it does not want to burden the taxpayers with this additional and needless cost when they already have the democratic right to express their preference in local elections. The removal of the referendum threshold would allow AnyCounty to make local decisions to meet local needs and be held fully accountable at the ballot box. Five-year funding settlements would allow long-term investment in local priorities. AnyCounty has not felt able to invest in certain high-profile projects such as the opening of a new children’s centre, because of uncertainty over future revenue funding. A five-year settlement would allow AnyCounty to plan ahead with certainty to deliver local priorities.
as well as contributing to national growth. AnyCounty has good relationships with many partners and stakeholders such as the local healthcare trust, but without meaningful movement on the place-based public service budgets issue it cannot use these to their full potential. The preceding paragraphs outline several ways in which the report can help close AnyCounty’s funding gap, but it offers much more than that. AnyCounty is ready and willing to play its part in the journey towards a system that increases accountability and revitalises local democracy.
The financial impact The financial impact of these measures on public service reform and integration, growth and local government finance will vary from council to council. The timing of their impact will vary too. The benefits of public service integration will also be spread across the public sector. We estimated the effects on AnyCounty of some of the principal measures in the report – Table 2 below shows that these propositions are an important part of the solution. Their precise impact (and that of the other measures in the new model) would need further, more detailed analysis to determine their effect in a real council area.
Transforming local government to take on the challenge AnyCounty recognises the scale of the task ahead, and is willing to transform and take risks in order to deliver its own priorities,
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Table 2: The potential financial impact of public service integration, growth and the de-regulation of local government finance Potential financial impact £million
Timing (financial year)
4.9
2015/16 (assuming integration begins in 2013/14)
1.6
2015/16 (assuming integration begins in 2013/14)
Growth – 1% above trend – uplift in the local share of business rates11
0.9
2016/17 (assumes single local growth fund set out by Lord Heseltine has an immediate additional impact on local growth following implementation in 2015/16)
RPI increase to council tax
1.2
2015/16
Reduction of single person discount for non-pensioner households from 25% to 20%
3.8
2015/16
Total impact in 2015/16
11.5
Total impact by 2016/17
12.4
Measure Place-based public service budgets – health and social care integration9 Place-based public service budgets – DSG and EIG integration and early intervention measures – reduce number of looked after children by 5%10
9 Based on Ernst and Young’s analysis that savings from integration will be in the range 5-9 per cent with the local authority share of 31 per cent and AnyCounty 2013/14 adult social care budget of £225 million. 10 Based on a 5 per cent reduction in number of looked after children at unit cost of £52,000 per annum. 11 Based on a 1 per cent increase in locally retained business rates which are £90 million in 2013/14.
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Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
Conclusion
Councils are required to produce a balanced budget each year, upon which they set the level of council tax. They have made a significant contribution to deficit reduction, alongside keeping council tax costs down to help householders. However, councils are now facing increasingly tough choices about service reductions and withdrawal.
Taken together the measures in the new model help AnyCounty reform and protect local services, maximise efficiencies across the public sector, promote growth in the local economy, contribute to national growth and help to reduce the national budget deficit.
The measures proposed in the LGA’s new model would help enable AnyCounty to: • drive public sector reform, integration and efficiency with local partners to reduce costs and improve outcomes (as demonstrated by the place-based Community Budget pilots) • accelerate integration in health and social care, reducing the number of emergency admissions to hospital and care • improve the wellbeing and school readiness of young children (and their future wellbeing and educational performance) through early intervention programmes jointly funded by the council and local schools • improve the performance of the local economy, and in particular reduce youth unemployment and equip young people with the skills they need to compete in both the local and global economy • allow local people more control over local taxes and the way in which those taxes are spent to deliver services and promote jobs growth.
Future funding outlook of AnyCounty Council July 2013
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For more information please contact: Alan Finch Interim Head of Programmes – Local Government Finance Local Government Association Local Government House Smith Square London SW1P 3HZ Email: lgfinance@local.gov.uk Telephone: 020 7664 3085
Local Government Association Local Government House Smith Square London SW1P 3HZ Telephone 020 7664 3000 Fax 020 7664 3030 Email info@local.gov.uk www.local.gov.uk Š Local Government Association, July 2013
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