The final local government finance settlement for England for 2018/19 was published by the MHCLG on 6 February 2018. This follows consultation on the provisional settlement which was issued in December 2017.
For the majority of authorities that have taken up the government’s offer of a four-year settlement the 2018/19 settlement confirms spending allocations first set out in 2015. For the ten local authorities that did not take up the offer the settlement sets out allocations for 2018/19 only.
Alongside the settlement, the government has announced a further £150m in funding for an Adult Social Care Support Grant, to be allocated according to need. The Rural Services Delivery Grant is being increased by £31m to £81m in 2018/19, rather than the £15m increase announced in the provisional settlement.
The government has also announced that the capital receipts flexibility programme has been extended for a further three years. This allows local authorities to use capital receipts from the sale of assets to fund transformation to achieve efficiency savings.
The council tax referendum threshold for 2018/19 has been confirmed as 3%. The adult social care precept remains as previously announced, ie up to 3% in 2018/19, subject to a maximum of 6% over three years.
The government is continuing to work towards the next phase of business rates retention, and it is now planned that local authorities will retain 75% of business rates in 2020/21, with the details of the system to be developed over the intervening period. It was also announced that there will be a further bidding round for business rates retention pilots in 2019/20.
Related links