Blog: Friday 25th October 2024 - LLG President, Aneeka Muneer Sarwar

Balancing the budget; balancing life.

Lawyers and governance officers within local government are acutely aware of budgetary pressures and funding issues within councils.   As a monitoring officer within the golden triangle, or a head of legal wrestling with a diminishing budget, or a lawyer feeling the pain of an under resourced local authority, you will appreciate that underfunding keenly. The underfunding of councils drives claims and complaints as departments are required to deliver while strained and under resourced. 

Underfunding leaves councils with a potential inability to balance the budget and an increase in requests for exceptional financial support (EFS). This ultimately results in an impact to communities and Place, forcing the council to make difficult decisions within a short timeframe that could lead to increased legal and governance risk.

Indeed, the LGSCO have outlined the significant increase in SEN, Housing and Adult Social Care complaints – increasing the pressure on monitoring officers in local government to keep their statutory services compliant. 

It’s a challenge to drive positive improvement with ongoing funding uncertainties, and it requires a great deal of resilience and collaboration between individuals within organisations. 

The Local Government Association (LGA) are highlighting the need for the Autumn Budget to adequately address the funding gap that a significant number of councils will face in the next two years. 

At the LGA conference, one of the speakers reported that they had heard it said that ‘Trying to plan is futile’ in the current financial environment within local government, but, in times of uncertainty you need to plan more than ever, not just to survive, but to build financial resilience. 

But where to start? Fortunately, there is new guidance on the LGA website entitled 

‘Managing financial uncertainty and building resilience’

Financial management is not just for the accountants. Financial Resilience needs to be a core strategic objective - every local authority should strive for a resilient balance sheet.

An important part of this is cost control. As lawyers you may be asked to advise on asset release - selling off assets that deliver low value or are a drain on resources. You may see partnerships forming between councils to allow for sharing of services or collective procurement - another good way to ensure financial resilience. 

Income generation and the proper recovery of the cost of services, including the costs of enforcement or debt recovery, can sit within the remit of legal services.

Of course, ensuring any external lawyers are procured via a framework is a sensible cost control, along with proper gate keeping and management of the outsourced service to ensure value for money.

We can play our part.

But governance is not just for the monitoring officer, it is for all of us. It ensures proper decision making and that ethical standards are upheld. We all have a unique role to play in our own areas to ensure that even in difficult times, we can do the best for our communities. Intervention can be positive, improving efficiency and effectiveness. It’s all about ensuring balance. 

So, what does the new government propose we do? At the recent LGA conference Jim McMahon expressed his support for local government and promised long term budget stability. We await the 31 October for the details. 

Let’s continue to build our own resilience and that of our teams in readiness for the change to come. 

Aneeka Muneer Sarwar

LLG 

President