Open consultation

L: Address details and list of consultation questions

Updated 20 June 2025

Applies to England

We strongly request responses through the following online form:

https://consult.communities.gov.uk/local-government-finance/local-government-funding-reform-consultation/

However, if the survey link is inoperable, responses may be sent by email to: lgfcorrespondence@communities.gov.uk

Alternatively, they may be sent by post to:

Local Government Finance 
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

If you reply to this consultation by email or post, please confirm whether you are replying as an individual or submitting an official response on behalf of an organisation and include the following information:

• Your name
• Type of respondent or organisation are you replying on behalf of (select one): combined authority; fire and rescue authority; local authority association or special interest group; local authority councillor; London borough; member of parliament; member of the public; metropolitan district; other representative group; parish or town council; shire county; shire district; unitary authority; voluntary organisation
• The name of your organisation (if applicable)
• Your position (if applicable)
• An email address
• A contact telephone number
• An address, including post-code

Please also structure your response to answer the following questions. Please answer ’no view’ where you do not have a view in response to a question. We will categorise responses as not indicating a view where written responses are unclear.

Question 1. What are your views on the updated SFA resulting in zero allocations, and the use of mitigations to avoid zero allocations?

(Free text)

Question 2. Do you agree with how the government proposes to determine the Council of the Isles of Scilly’s Settlement Funding Assessment?  

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 3. Do you agree with the government’s plans to simplify the grant landscape?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 4. Do you agree with the formulae for individual services the government proposes to include?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 5. Do you agree with the areas of need the government proposes to no longer include in the assessment through the Foundation Formula?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 6. Do you agree with the government’s approach to calculating the control total shares for the relative needs formulae?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 7. Do you agree with the Labour Cost Adjustment (LCA) and Rates Cost Adjustment (RCA) equations set out in this chapter?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 8. What are your views on the proposed approach to the Area Cost Adjustment (ACA)?

(Free text)

Question 9. Do you agree or disagree with the inclusion of the Remoteness Adjustment?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Do you have any evidence to support or contradict the theory that rural areas face additional costs due to separation from major markets? (Free text)

Question 10. Do you agree with the government’s proposal to set a notional Council Tax level at the national average level, to achieve the objective of full equalisation?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 11. Do you agree with the government’s proposal to fully include the impact of mandatory discounts and exemptions in the measure of taxbase?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 12. Do you agree with the government’s proposal to use statistical methods to proxy for the impact of Working Age Local Council Tax Support in the measure of taxbase?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 13. What are your views on the proposed statistical approach to proxy for the impact of Working Age Local Council Tax Support?

(Free text)

Question 14. Do you agree with the government’s proposal to assume that authorities make no use of their discretionary discount and premium schemes in the measure of taxbase?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 15. Do you agree with the government’s proposal to apply a uniform Council Tax collection rate assumption to all authorities?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 16. Do you agree with the government’s proposal to split or allocate the resource adjustment in multi-tier areas according to the average share in council tax receipts in multi-tier areas?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 17. Noting a potential trade-off of an increased levy charged on business rate growth for some local authorities, do you agree that the level of Safety Net protection should increase for 2026-27?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 18. Do you agree with the government’s proposal to end the New Homes Bonus in the LGFS from 2026-27 and return the funding currently allocated to the Bonus to the core Settlement, distributed via the updated Settlement Funding Assessment?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 19. What measures could the government use to incentivise local authorities to specifically support affordable and sub-market housing?

(Free text)

Question 20. Are there any further flexibilities that you think could support local decision-making during the transitional period?

(Free text)

Question 21. What are the safeguards that would need to go alongside any additional flexibilities?

(Free text)

Question 22. Do you agree or disagree that we should move local authorities to their updated allocations over the three-year multi-year Settlement?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any additional information, including the impact this measure could have on local authorities’ financial sustainability and service provision. (Free text)

Question 23. Do you agree or disagree that we should use a funding floor to protect as many local authorities’ income as possible, at flat cash in each year of the Settlement?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any additional information, including on: (i) the level of protection or income baseline, considerate of the trade-off with allocating funding according to the updated assessment of need and resources; and (ii) the possible impacts on local authorities’ financial sustainability and service provision. (Free text)

Question 24. Do you agree or disagree with including projections on residential population?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Question 25. Do you agree or disagree with including projections on Council Tax level?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Question 26. Do you agree or disagree with including projections on Council Tax base?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Question 27. Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response and any views on technical delivery. If you agree, what is your preferred method of projecting residential population, Council Tax level and Council Tax base?

(Free text)

Question 28. Do you agree with the above approach to determining allocations for areas which reorganise into a single unitary authority along existing geographic boundaries?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 29. Do you agree that, where areas are reorganising into multiple new unitary authorities, they should agree a proposal for the division of existing funding locally based on any guidance set out by central government?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any supporting information, including any further information areas would find helpful in guidance. (Free text)

Question 30. Do you agree that the government should work to reduce unnecessary or disproportionate burden created by statutory duties?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

If you agree, what specific areas of statutory duties impose significant burden without significant value for residents? (Free text)

Question 31. Do you agree with the proposed framework outlined at paragraph 11.2.3 for assessing whether a fee should be changed?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any additional information, for example any additional criteria which would strengthen the above assessment framework, and any data which would be used to assess against additional criteria. (Free text)

Question 32. The government invites views from respondents on how best to balance the need to maintain fee values and the original policy intent of the fee whilst minimising cost of living impacts for service users.

 (Free text)

Question 33. Do you agree that the measures above provide an effective balance between protecting charge payers from excessive increases, while providing authorities with greater control over local revenue raising?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide a rationale or your response. We are also interested in any further mechanisms which could be applied to fees that are updated or devolved, that will help strike a balance between those objectives. (Free text)

Question 34. Do you agree that we should take action to update fees before exploring options to devolve certain fees to local government in the longer term?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option)

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 35. Do you agree or disagree that these are the right Relative Needs Indicators? Are there any other Relative Needs Indicators we should consider? Note that we will not be able to add additional indicators for a 2026-27 update.

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Are there any other Relative Needs Indicators we should consider? Note that we will not be able to add additional indicators for a 2026-27 update. (Free text)

Question 36. Do you agree or disagree with including population projections in the ASC formula, when published, that have been rebased using Census 2021 data?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 37. Do you agree or disagree with our proposal to include a Low-Income Adjustment (LIA) for the older adults component of the ASC RNF model?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 38. Do you agree or disagree that the overall ASC RNF should combine the two component allocation shares using weights derived from the national ASC net current expenditure data on younger and older adults  (in this case 2023 to 2024)?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

If you disagree, what other weightings would you use? Please provide details for why you would use these weights and what data it would be based on? (Free text)

Question 39. Do you agree that ethnicity should be removed as a variable in the CYPS formula?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please explain your reasoning.. (Free text)

Question 40. Do you agree overall that the new formula represents an accurate assessment of need for children and family services?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please share any reflections or suggested changes. (Free text)

Question 41. Do you believe that the components of daytime population inflow should be weighted to reflect their relative impact on demand for services?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response (Free text)

Question 42. Do you agree with/have any comments on the design of the Foundation Formula?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 43. Do you agree with/have any comments on the design of the Fire and Rescue Formula? 

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 44. Do you agree with/have any comments on the design of the formula for Highways Maintenance?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 45. Do you agree with/have any comments on the design of the formula for Home-to-School-Transport?

Agree – Neither agree nor disagree – Disagree – No view (Choose one option) 

Please provide any additional information, including any explanation or evidence for your response. (Free text)

Question 46. Do you have any views on the potential impacts of the proposals in this consultation on persons who share a protected characteristic?

(Free text)