WIREDGOV

Cllr Claire Kober, Chair of the Local Government Association's Resources Board responded to the National Audit Office's report on new burdens for local government.

"In recent years, local government has worked hard to save billions while protecting services for residents and have proved to be effective at implementing new government policies.

"As this report rightly recognises, it is wrong for councils to have to reduce spending on vital services, such as caring for the elderly, collecting bins and fixing our roads, to meet the costs brought about by changes to national policy.

"Funding for recent new burdens, such as the increase in Deprivation of Liberty Assessments and the new Local Government Transparency Code, was not received by councils before they incurred new costs. This has added significant pressure on local services.

"The NAO's helpful recommendations would improve the new burdens process and address the lack of transparency which has been a source of frustration among local authorities. We would urge the Government to go further and ensure new burdens are properly assessed and paid to councils before they incur any new costs in order to avoid other local services suffering as a result."

View report:

http://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Local-government-new-burdens.pdf