27 September 2002
The mayor said that the government's proposed changes to the Standard Spending Assessment would see the fire service lose more than £30m from its £326m grant, equivalent to the cost of 11 fire stations.
He added that reforms to the notoriously complex system, which is used to calculate the amount councils receive in central government grant, would see London authorities lose out on other grant blocks such as social services and environment and cultural services.
Livingstone called on ministers to remember how much of the nation's wealth is generated by the capital and to ensure the city gets the money it needs.
'There are some proposals in the consultation paper which would be extremely damaging to London and I will be urging the government to look closely at this,' he added.
Livingstone made his comments as the Greater London Authority finalised its response to the government's consultation on SSA reform, which is due to end on September 30.
A document summarising the GLA's position says that in some areas, such as social services, the government should allow more time to get the reforms right. Ministers aim to introduce the reformed system before the provisional finance settlement at the end of this year.
'Proposals have been worked up too quickly and are not ready for implementation. The status quo should prevail,' the document said.
John Sellgren, director of the County Councils Network, echoed the GLA's call. He told Public Finance> that implementing the reforms for the 2003/04 financial year would affect authorities' ability to set spending plans.
'Authorities will get some of the data affecting funding very late in the day and will already be well down the road of planning their budgets,' he said. 'And everyone would benefit from having more time to think about the options put forward.'
County councils are likely to be the biggest losers from the SSA shake-up. Sellgren said the proposals would cost counties £304m as a result of changes to the resource equalisation system, the mechanism by which councils with low tax bases and high needs are compensated.
PFsep2002
