Exceptional financial support for local authorities: capitalisation directions

The government has given considerable support to the local government sector to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, a small number of individual authorities have unique circumstances or residual issues that have resulted in unmanageable pressures, and have made the local decision to approach the government to request support.

To support these authorities, we have agreed to provide flexibilities – through a capitalisation direction – to enable authorities to use capital resources to support their revenue budget positions.

The capitalisation directions published above relate to the financial year 2020-21. A small number of authorities have also requested support in relation to unmanageable pressures in the 2021-22 financial year, either in addition to a request for 2020-21, or just for 2021-22.

The government has agreed support in principle for these authorities, subject to the outcome of an external assurance review. Therefore, the final amount of support may be subject to change. We will publish a final outcome in due course.

Authorities that have requested support for both 2020-21 and 2021-22

Authorities that have requested support for 2021-22 only