Commenting on current Local Authority cost pressures as well as those coming down the pipeline, Cllr. James Jamieson says that "the dramatic increase in inflation has undermined council's budgets."

As of today (19th October) media reports state that the UK inflation rate is now just over 10% thus underlining Cllr. Jamieson's concerns which he expressed prior to today's inflation news. He went on to say that Local Government is looking at £2.4 billion in extra costs over and above the funding levels set in March for the 2022/23 year with the funding gap set to rise to £3.4 billion for 2023/24.

Given these sums the LGA Chair is calling for a long term plan from the Government so that there is certainty for councils in planning ongoing service delivery given that the funding set for 2022 on now out of date cost projections was meant to "keep services standing still at least."

Further, he writes that "news that government departments have [now] been tasked with efficiency savings from public sector budgets has sent a collective shiver down the spine of local government .... at a time when the future financial sustainability of councils and local services is already on a cliff edge." Councils will be using reserves to plug funding gaps, stopping capital projects and cutting services in order to comply with their "legal duty to balance the books this year." The Government therefore needs to come up with a long term plan to deal with this crisis before councils "have no choice but to implement significant cuts to services."

Coincidentally, Cllr. Jamieson's call to Government comes as councillors in Nottingham express their concerns about the value for money of the recently announced large Selective Licensing scheme set to commence in the city in 2023 and which was recently approved by the Secretary of State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The scheme cost is projected to be over £22 million over 5 years and will entail building an administrative team of around 94 people not including enforcement EHOs who will likely be funded via a separate pot of council funding (as per the scheme's published documentation supporting the new licensing designation)