As well as our work to influence funding for local government, we have an extensive finance offer to help local authorities manage their finances in these difficult times.
Our financial resilience offer makes use of expertise from across the local government sector in the form of LGA peers (experienced officers and councillors).
Finance Improvement & Sustainability Associates (FISA) Programme
Our LGA finance associates – all of them former local authority chief finance officers – provide advice and insight to councils facing financial challenges. They can provide a financial health check of your council or support in challenging your budget. Alternatively, we can provide experienced member peers to work with councillors to help them understand and address their budget challenges.
Finance Peer Challenge
Our Finance Peer Challenge programme is a specialist peer challenge that dovetails closely with our Corporate Peer Challenge programme. It looks at how councils are setting strategy, making required decisions, and implementing changes that will give them the best chance of balancing the books in the medium and long term.
Bespoke support
For councils facing significant challenges, we can provide a package of bespoke support. This includes a new offer of assurance reviews, focused on:
- capital strategies (including support to ensure well-managed and sustainable capital strategies)
- business cases for services/ programmes at risk of overspending.
An example of bespoke support previously provided was for Peterborough City Council, a small unitary authority, which, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, was facing significant financial challenges.
Peterborough City Council case study
Finance support
We offer a range of tools and resources for councillors and officers to promote financial resilience within local government.
Finance guidance and publications
We write and commission guidance on the topic of local government finance to support finance professionals, other senior officers and councillors.
Whether you're looking to improve budgeting practices, understand key principles or navigate complex financial challenges, our publications provide you with the guidance and resources you need.
LG Inform – our free data benchmarking tool
Our free data benchmarking tool – LG Inform – presents you with up-to-date data about your local area and the performance of your council. With access to over 1,000 individual items of published data for England, LG Inform gives you:
- easy access to the most relevant up-to-date published data
- the ability to compare your council with others
- high-quality online and offline reporting.
Our sister benchmarking tool – LG Inform Value for Money Profiles (or VfM) – is dedicated to council financial data. These profiles show how councils are spending resources and how these costs compare between organisations. It contains financial reports related to services over time, with the same ability to compare against a range of comparison groups. As with LG Inform, it is free to use and we keep the data up to date so you can rely on having the most recent information.
Contact us
To find out more about our financial resilience offer or to discuss any support you may need, please email [email protected].
Highlighted pages
Our support
LGR finance essentials: Ensuring strong financial governance and financial sustainability in the lead up to LGR
This first guidance note focuses on how to maintain strong financial governance throughout the LGR journey and why a focus on financial sustainability is so important in the period up to vesting day.
Finance Unpacked
Finance Unpacked is a series of animated videos from the Local Government Association to explain some of the key concepts in local government finance and audit.
Navigating financial uncertainty and building resilience: Guiding principles
The local government sector has been grappling with sustained financial pressures since 2010, encountering a myriad challenges that complicate the task of budgeting and planning for the medium-term. This guide focuses on helping local authorities’ finance functions to plan and manage in these challenging times.
A councillor workbook on local government finance
This workbook considers the way local councils receive their funding and highlights both the legal and best practice requirements in managing your council’s financial affairs.
Chief Finance Officer (CFO) Mentoring Scheme
The role of chief finance officer (CFO) is one of the most challenging and highly scrutinised roles in local government. Our Chief Finance Officer (CFO) Mentoring Scheme supports CFOs and deputy CFOs to develop the knowledge and skills they need to excel in the role.