Spending Review 2020 and local government
In this week’s Spending Review 2020 the Chancellor put a focus on improving outcomes in public services, to support local authorities in their efforts to serve local communities as well as a renewed focus on place based working as part of the levelling up agenda.
Funding
The Spending Review including many announcements on local authority funding as well as expected funding to support councils as they continue to help mitigate impact of coronavirus on communities and places. Local authorities will be able to increase their council tax bills by 2 per cent without needing to hold a referendum, and social care authorities will be able to charge an additional 3 per cent precept to help fund pressures in social care. SR20 also provides £254 million of additional funding to help end rough sleeping.
Local Digital
As part of the underlying core settlement for local authorities in 2021-22 they will be providing £16 million to support modernisation of local authorities’ cyber security systems which is very welcome and has been a key mission of MHCLG’s Local Digital Collaboration Unit work. techUK’s Spending Review submission encouraged continued investment into the work of the Unit to support the digitisation of local public services.
Following on from the recent Planning for the Future White Paper, an additional £12 million to take forward the government’s radical planning reform agenda. This is encouraging as MHCLG’s Local Digital Fund has invested in a discovery aimed to understand how a cross-authority solution, potentially providing back-end case management, transactional functions and a database, could unlock wider transformation of the planning system.
UK Infrastructure
Alongside the Spending Review, the National Infrastructure Strategy was also published which announced that a new national infrastructure bank to coinvest with private-sector partners. It will be available to metro mayors and local authorities.
For local authorities, the Spending Review included:
- £1.7 billion for local roads maintenance and upgrades
- over £260 million for transformative digital infrastructure programmes, including the Shared Rural Network for 4G coverage, Local Full Fibre Networks, and the 5G Diversification and Testbeds and Trials Programmes.
Levelling Up
The government announced a new Levelling Up Fund worth £4 billion. Any local area will be able to bid directly to fund local projects. The fund will be managed jointly between the Treasury, the Department for Transport and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government with the Chancellor stating it will be ‘taking a new, holistic, place-based approach to the needs of local areas’.
Commenting on the Spending Review 2020, techUK’s Head of Local Public Services, Georgina Maratheftis:
“It is welcome to see the Chancellor acknowledge the importance of place based working in the Spending Review and taking a holistic approach to meeting the needs of local areas. As place shapers local government have an important role to play in our recovery and know best the needs of their communities and places. While the Spending Review outlines some measures for local government finance, we acknowledge the unprecedented challenges councils are facing. Local authorities have worked tirelessly this year, along with other public sector colleagues and partners, to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on their communities and services. techUK’s Local Public Services Committee is committed to working with councils to support them and their local ecosystems on their road to recovery. As well as explore where tech and procurement can help scale up efficiencies. The priority in the final months of the committee’s tenure will be to support our partners from industry and councils to build back better a thriving local ecosystem which sit at the heart of place based working.”
Georgina Maratheftis
Georgina is techUK’s Associate Director for Local Public Services
