The government has been told it should do more to reform the “outdated and inadequate” way in which public money has traditionally been allocated, despite improvements in the Spending Review.
Councils have warned that they will remain under “severe financial pressure” despite a more generous than expected settlement that will see core spending power rise by 2.6% from next year.
No region will have Treasury guidance “wielded against them”, the chancellor has promised as she unveiled a major shake-up of the rules governing the allocation of public investment.
Prolonged uncertainty in the wake of the Spending Review over the handling of mounting high needs deficits is causing “massive concerns” among local authorities, the government has been told.
More than £10bn of investment in rail infrastructure in the Spending Review will help rebalance the economy away from London and the South-East, experts have said.
CIPFA chief executive Owen Mapley believes the Spending Review contained positive steps, but worries that some public services still face more questions than answers.
Health spending will increase by billions of pounds following Rachel Reeves’s first multi-year Spending Review as chancellor, but at a cost to other departments.
Pressure to increase health and defence spending will make cuts to other public services hard to avoid in the Spending Review, according to a leading think-tank.
The government faces a warning that the Spending Review will “make or break” council budgets with three-fifths of counties and rural unitaries fearing they will be unable to balance the books next...
The effectiveness of the Household Support Fund has been hampered by “chaotic and declining” funding which must now be put on a firmer footing, according to a think-tank.
The next government has been urged to launch a one-year spending review within its first few weeks to avoid a damaging cliff edge at the end of the year.
County council leaders have warned that they face a financial situation worse than at any point in recent years, with services at risk, if their budgets are cut in the government’s push for savings.
The public sector could be set for an exodus of workers if the government fails to compensate departments for higher-than-expected pay offers, according to economists at the Institute for Fiscal...
The government’s choice to not go ahead with a Spending Review this year means departments will need to make difficult decisions on services as inflation erodes their budgets, experts have warned.
The government will need to give departments an additional £44bn in the coming years as inflation eats into budgets, an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.
The government has shied away from a fundamental reform of the business rate system in the 2021 Autumn Budget and Spending Review, with experts saying councils still lack long-term...
The joint Spending Review and Autumn Budget pledged real-terms funding increases for each central government department. PF rounds-up where that money is heading.
Next week’s Spending Review is likely to see the government indicate the future of delayed reforms to local authority finance, according to the government.
“Glaring holes” in the NHS capital budget pose a risk to patient safety and mean long waiting lists will be tough to reduce, the government has been warned.
