THE STANDARD SPENDING ASSESSMENT AS A MEASURE OF SPENDING NEEDS IN NONMETROPOLITAN DISTRICTS

Central government assistance to local government in England is based on the Standard Spending Assessment (SSA), which is intended to reflec t the spending needs of each local council. This paper is an evaluatio n of the methodology used in calculating SSA, with particular referenc e to the district-level service element of the All Other Services bloc k of SSA. This element accounts for the vast majority of SSA for nonme tropolitan district councils. The first section of the paper is concer ned with the overall structure of the SSA methodology, and the second section is an examination of some of the details of how it was impleme nted. Barrow-in-Furness is used as an illustrative example. In the con clusion some specific problems are highlighted and some potential impr ovements are suggested.