House of Commons Library briefing on the Local Government Finance Settlement 2019-20

The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2019-20 was published on 13 December 2018, with an oral statement and questions in the House of Commons on the same day.

The provisional settlement documentation includes details of allocations of grant funding to local authorities for the 2019-20 financial year. For that year, it also includes details of business rate retention pilots; proposed council tax referendum principles; and policy decisions on the New Homes Bonus, ‘negative Revenue Support Grant’, and grants for social care.

The final settlement documentation is expected in February 2019.

Two additional consultation papers were published alongside the provisional settlement documentation. These are Business Rates Retention Reform and A review of local authorities’ relative needs and resources. The former addresses the new system of 75% business rate retention, expected to be introduced in 2020-21. The latter concerns the ‘Fair Funding Review’, also expected to take effect from 2020-21. Details of these papers can be found in the Library briefing paper Reviewing and reforming local government finance.