A time of revolution? British local government finance in the 2010s

Adult social care funding: a local or national responsibility?

“…These can and do change differently in different parts of the country. Previous work by IFS researchers (Amin-Smith et al, 2016) has shown that even if tax revenue capacity were to grow at the same rate in all council areas, the income councils retain from the BRRS could still diverge. This is because the redistributive tariffs and top-ups increase in line with inflation but tax revenue capacity can grow by more or less than inflation.…”

“…The income from all these tariffs was used to fund 'top-ups' for councils with relatively low business rates incomes compared with their spending needs. 32 The text here draws heavily on Amin-Smith et al (2016), where readers can find more details on the changes. 33 Indeed, council tax revenues fell in real terms, reflecting two factors.…”

The local vantage: how views of local government finance vary across councils

“…As shown in Amin-Smith et al (2016), though, the scale of cuts has varied significantly around the country, with more deprived (typically urban) areas, which are more dependent on central government grants for their funding, facing the largest cuts. One might expect that respondents from such councils would be more likely to have concerns about service quality and vice versa.…”

“…Gains and losses are expressed as a fraction of councils' overall (non-education) grant and tax revenues. Full details can be found on page 22 of Amin-Smith et al (2016). Q5. Is your area one that has seen an increase or reduction in funding as a result of the business rates retention scheme?…”

“…15 See Amin-Smith et al (2016). 16 Unfortunately, we cannot examine the correlation with their own view of the impact of the BRRS so far, as the questions come from different surveys (with limited sample overlap).…”