Annex
BALANCE OF FUNDING REVIEW—TERMS OF
REFERENCE
The overall aim is to review all aspects of
the balance of funding, review the evidence and look at reform
options. This can be broken down into two objectives:
1. ESTABLISHING
THE NATURE
AND PRIORITY
OF THE
ISSUE
The review will explore and test the range of
criticisms that have been levelled at the present balance of funding,
in order to establish clearly the key issues and as far as possible
to clarify causalities. It will also examine the extent of impact
on different authorities. A better understanding of the inter-related
issues should shed light on the case for change, and influence
how potential options for change are appraised.
2. IDENTIFYING
AND ANALYSING
OPTIONS FOR
CHANGE
The review will consider a range of short and
long term options for changing the current balance of funding.
Through a wide-ranging and objective analysis it will establish
the "pros and cons" of each option. The review should
take a broad look at the full impact of each option so that all
the implications can be established.
To achieve these objectives we intend to make
full use of existing evidence, and to conduct research where necessary.
MEMBERSHIP
The Steering Group will consist of between 15-20
people to be invited by the Minister for Local Government. It
will include Ministers and senior figures from local government,
the accountancy profession, academia, the business community and
the union movement. Group members will act in a personal capacity.
Others may be invited to join the group or its sub-groups when
expertise in specific areas would be helpful. Senior officials
from Government departments with an interest will also sit on
the group.
WORKING METHODS,
TIMING AND
OUTPUT
Nick Raynsford, Minister of State for Local
Government and the Regions, will chair the steering group. The
first meeting of the Steering Group will be in April 2003. Further
meetings will be held every two to three months. We expect the
review to last for about a year.
Papers presented to the review will be published
on the ODPM and LGA web-sites.
ODPM officials will provide a secretariat and
will write a report of the review's proceedings. We envisage that
the report will summarise the main issues discussed by the Group
and will set out the pros and cons of a range of options for changing
the balance of funding.
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