Funding Advisory Service

Funding Advisory Service 2019-20

This is a hugely important period for local government finance. Changes are being made by the Government that will affect almost every aspect of the way that local authorities are funded.  We have seen some of these changes emerge in the last couple of years, but we will only fully understand the actual implications as we get closer to 2020-21 and 2021-22.

As we can see, local government funding is still beset by uncertainty and change, and the Funding Advisory Service will be on-hand to help you to understand the changes and maximise your authority’s financial position.

Workplan for 2019-20

We have developed two models that provide practical financial planning outputs for authorities, and which can be used directly in authorities’ medium term financial plans and budget reports. Our models also help authorities to understand Government proposals and the assumptions and variables that are important. Our two key models are:

Our Medium Term Financial Planning (MTFP) model is a core part of the Funding Advisory Service (FAS). It enables us to show the effect of funding changes in detail and at authority level. It also provides local authority funding forecasts to 2025-26. Many authorities use this model to support and check their budget plans, and we will be improving the model and ensuring that it supports authorities as effectively and practically as possible.

We will continue to update our Fair Funding model in 2019-20. Initially, this model indicated the impact of updating and resetting the current funding formula, but this year it will enable us to assess the impact of various Government proposals. This model will be integrated into the MTFP model.

These two models will be included as part of the overall subscription for 2019-20, and will be updated to reflect the latest announcements and intelligence from the Government.

Other planned outputs include:

• Briefing notes on all the key announcements including the provisional and final settlements, the Budget 2018, the Social Care Green Paper and any other relevant announcements.
• Briefing notes on technical changes to the BRRS and to council tax.
• Strategic papers on wider economic and fiscal changes, and the impact on local government funding
• Updates on reports from think-tanks, such as the Institute of Fiscal Studies, where they have local government funding implications.
• Regular updates on the various working groups, select committees and ministerial statements.
• Guidance on completing NNDR1 and NNDR3.

Bespoke local authority meetings. Onsite or web-hosted meetings or workshops designed for you authority. For county groups, attendance at joint meetings or finance directors’ monthly meeting.

Free workshops for subscribers and regular web-hosted workshops. A new feature in our service, we will hold these workshops after major announcements or following one of our briefings.

We provide email and telephone support to FAS subscribers.

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