Agenda item
Agenda item
Exploring Fiscal Devolution
Minutes:
Stephen Hughes, Interim Executive Director of Finance, introduced a paper exploring fiscal devolution, which summarised the initial modelling of the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Local Government Finance. It illustrated how a self-financing system that provides for some measure of redistribution could operate.
Members discussed:
· Real devolution has to include the power to raise resources as well as to spend
· However, there are risks of pushing for tax-raising powers at this stage as
· Sorting out geographic and governance issues is critical to the viability of proposals,
· There was debate about whether there is a need to assess whether existing spend is right before accepting it as a future baseline
· The importance of reforming how existing public spending is used
· The potential to learn from the experiences of cities in Europe
Action
An invitation has been extended by the Resources Board to have a more detailed conversation about further work members want to see.
Supporting documents: