Notably, Michael Heseltine’s 2012 report, No Stone Unturned, advocated for the creation of a single pot of economic funding to address the problems that fragmented grants had created. The Government has made attempts to streamline grants in the past. 2 The design and operation of this complex grants system has large effects on local economic policy, and is part of the reason local government struggles to respond effectively to economic change. 1 As local government in the UK has few other sources of revenue, it relies on central grants to deliver local economic policy.
In last year’s Levelling Up White Paper the Government made a welcome commitment to streamline the local government grants system.
