Fixing the 'Polycrisis' in Local Government Finance: the Limits of More Incremental Reform

Amid financial pressure and distress on an unprecedented scale and scope, the National Audit Office has made another telling contribution to understanding the current 'polycrisis' in local government finance in England. Its analysis feeds into the wider debate about the Starmer government's agenda of seeking dividends from combining devolution, local government reorganisation, and financial reforms. The risk is that further incremental modifications avoid more fundamental questions about what local government is for and how it can be funded. For example, is it an agent of central government tasked with delivering local services or instead a democratically accountable local tier of the state governing place? Local self-government principles can inform the more radical answers required, but the Starmer government's priorities are focussed elsewhere, and the highly centralised governance system sits alongside its mistrust of local government and its limited capacity. Yet, given local government's proximity to people's lives and its relatively more trusted status amongst the public, fixing its finances can make it more able to deliver the tangible positive change the government seeks.