Local authority funding reform

Local government represents the front line of many key public services, including children’s and adults’ services and social care, public health, libraries, youth and leisure services and highways maintenance. It is therefore critical that individual local authorities are properly funded, in a manner that enables them to respond as efficiently and effectively as possible to the range and level of needs of all their residents and the workforces within their localities.

Service needs identified by councils should reflect those arising from the composition of their populations, in terms of gender, race, age, disability and the protected characteristics within the Equality Act 2010. Those needs must also reflect key indicators such as location (urban/rural/liable to flooding), levels of deprivation, quality of the housing stock, access to transport and poverty.

Identification of everyday needs through specific reference to local population, NHS and other timely data is critical. It is not enough to consider the needs of ‘residents’ as an undifferentiated category, with uniform needs. This is especially important for women whose lives are likely to differ in many respects from those of most men and who are more likely to rely regularly on local public services.

Women are more likely to have the main responsibility for unpaid care for young children, adolescents and older relatives within their families and are more likely to work and spend time within their local communities in family-related activities than men. Many Black, Asian and ethnic minority women, pregnant, older and Disabled women will have additional and more specific needs.

Local government is also a key provider of employment for women- and along with the NHS – is often the main source of women’s jobs within a local authority area. 78% of local government workers are women – most of them part-time and many low paid. Women’s employment in local government is also critical to the vibrancy of the local economy. For every £1 earned, 65 pence is spent locally ¹ .  The level and means of allocation of funding are therefore critical to women’s ability to earn and ensure the well-being of themselves and their family members.  They must reflect the demographics and circumstances – including the revenue-raising ability – of the local authority within which they live.

Local authorities have a unique role as public service providers and are closest to the daily lives of service users. They must be empowered to act as ‘stewards of place’ and use their general power of competence to respond to the specific range of local needs within their own councils as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Read our full consultation response