This consultation seeks views, in particular from representatives of local government, on proposals for the local government finance settlement for 2025-26. The settlement is an annual process to distribute core resources to local government and consists of grant, council tax and locally retained business rates. Following consultation, the government will determine the final amounts of the Revenue Support Grant, and the section 31 grants distributed alongside the settlement, and their allocations to receiving authorities and the specified body, as part of determining the overall allocation of this year’s settlement made to each local authority in England.

This consultation document, together with accompanying documents including the draft Local Government Finance Report for 2025-26, notifies representatives of local government and members of the public of the government’s proposals for policies across the upcoming settlement. This includes: the general nature of the basis of Revenue Support Grant distribution; the general nature of the basis of the calculation of ‘tariff’ and ‘top up’ payments that form part of the business rates retention system; the determination of the ‘central’ and ‘local share’ of business rates for 2025-26; the general nature of the basis of the distribution of section 31 grants alongside the settlement; and council tax referendum principles set through the settlement process.

On 28 November, the government published a policy statement setting out the government’s intentions for the 2025-26 settlement and the direction of travel to fix the foundations of local government in 2026-27 and beyond. This consultation builds on and invites views on the proposals set out in that statement for 2025-26 only.

The consultation can be found at Consultation: provisional local government finance settlement 2025 to 26 - GOV.UK

The closing date for responses is 15 January 2025.

The IRRV's response can be found here: https://www.irrv.net/documents/weblinks/2025/1/IRRV_Response_Consultation_Prov_LG_Finance_Settlement_2025.pdf

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) aimed to improve its statistics to ensure they continue to best meet the needs of users. Following a review of business floorspace statistics, they identified two possible ways to measure and classify floorspace within the statistics. Floorspace could continue to be classified at an overall hereditament level; or floorspace could be measured at a more granular level and aggregated by the use of each section of a hereditament.

The purpose of the consultation was to understand how floorspace statistics are used and therefore which of the two methods will better meet user needs. The document set out the broad differences in the two approaches and invited feedback from users. It is published alongside a Quality Assurance of Administrative Data (QAAD) report which provided more detail on our non-domestic property attribute data, to give users the necessary information to respond.

The consultation could be found here.

The deadline for responses was 30 January 2025.

The IRRV's response can be found at IRRV_Response_Consultation_Floorspace_Statistics_VOA.pdf

This strategy commited to a series of measures to fix the broken local audit system, including:

• A local audit vision with eight core principles.
• The establishment of a statutory and independent Local Audit Office (LAO), with five strategic responsibilities - coordinating the system, contract management, ownership of the Code of Audit Practice, quality oversight and reporting.
• Mandating audit committees.

The government also consulted on a number of specific proposals as part of this strategy, including:

• Potential additional functions of the new LAO.
• Simplifying financial reporting requirements to ensure they are proportionate.
• Improvements to enhance capacity and capability in the local audit sector, such as the introduction of public provision.
• Strengthening the relationship between local bodies and their auditor.
• Reforming the audit regime.

The paper was found at Local audit reform: a strategy for overhauling the local audit system in England - GOV.UK.

Closing date for responses was 29 January 2025.

The IRRV's response can be found at IRRV_Response_Consultation_Audit_Reform.pdf

Government response was added on 9 April 2025 and can be found here Local audit reform: a strategy for overhauling the local audit system in England - GOV.UK

This consultation sought views on the approach to local authority funding reform through the local government finance settlement from 2026-27.

This consultation sought views on the approach to determining new funding allocations for local authorities and fire and rescue authorities. It covered: guiding objectives and principles; measuring differences in demand for services and the cost of delivering them; measuring differences in locally available resources; the New Homes Bonus; and implementing changes and keeping allocations up-to-date. It also covered: ways the Government can reduce demands on local government to empower them to deliver for communities; and sales, fees and charges reform. It invited views on the possible equalities impacts of these proposals.

The consultation could be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/local-authority-funding-reform-objectives-and-principles.

The closing date for responses was 11:59pm on 12 February 2025.

The IRRV response can be found here: IRRV_Response_Consultation_Funding_Reform.pdf

This consultation sought views on a range of proposals aimed at implementing technical reforms to the compulsory purchase process and compensation rules to make it cheaper, quicker and fairer.

The paper and on-line response link could be found at Compulsory Purchase Process and Compensation Reforms - GOV.UK.

Closing date for responses was 13 February 2025.

The Law Commission’s first Consultation Paper on “Business Tenancies: the right to renew” was published on 19 November. Publication marks the beginning of a 3-month consultation period, ending on 19 February 2025.

Their Business Tenancies project was a review of the 1954 Act. The Act gives business tenants a legal right to another tenancy when their existing tenancy comes to an end (a right known as “security of tenure”), subject to the landlord’s ability to oppose another tenancy in certain circumstances.

The Consultation Paper asked key questions about the possible options to reform the 1954 Act. In particular, they considered the pros and cons of the current “contracting-out” model of security of tenure and considered three alternative models: mandatory security of tenure, abolition of security of tenure and a “contracting-in” model. They sought consultees’ views on which model they prefer. They also sought views on whether or not the types of business tenancy which can benefit from security of tenure – the Act’s scope – are the right ones.

After they have analysed all the responses to our first Consultation Paper and reached conclusions on the issues it raises, they will then expect to publish a second, technical Consultation Paper.

Alongside the Consultation Paper, they published a short survey on the impact of Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (“the 1954 Act”) on the current commercial leasehold market.

The consultation can be found here. The survey can be found here.

The deadline for responses was 19 February 2025.

The IRRV's response can be found here: IRRV_Response_Consultation_L_and_T_Act_1954.pdf

The Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Bill completed its progress through the Scottish Parliament on 6 June 2024. Section 1 of the Bill requires Scottish Ministers to create a moratorium on debt recovery action by creditors against individuals who have a mental illness. This is an enabling power which lays out the framework for the moratorium with the detail of the process to be provided in secondary legislation.

A draft of the The Debt Recovery (Mental Health Moratorium) (Scotland) Regulations has now been produced. This is based on the expert Mental Health Moratorium working group's recomendation, feedback from the Mental Health Moratorium public consultation, and various debates during scrutiny of the Bankrupty and Diligence (Scotland) Bill.

This consultation was formed from the draft Regulations (although please note that some minor changes have been made to the Regulations since they were shared with the Scottish Parliament). Feedback received during this consultation will be used to finalise and commence the Mental Health Moratorium Regulations subject to the will of Parliament.

The consultation could be found at The draft Debt Recovery (Mental Health Moratorium) (Scotland) Regulations - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space

The deadline for responses was 17 March 2025.

The IRRV's response can be found here: Debt_Recovery_(Mental_Health_Moratorium)_(Scotland)_Regulations_IRRV_Submission.pdf

At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced its intention to introduce permanently lower business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties from 2026-27 to level the playing field for the high-street. 

This paper set out the government’s priority areas of reform to achieve the remaining objectives. The paper included the following chapters:

• Chapter 1 explains why the government believes the business rates system needs to be reformed.
• Chapter 2 details the immediate actions taken by the government in Autumn Budget 2024 to protect the high street.
• Chapter 3 sets out the government’s areas of interest for further reform.
• Chapter 4 sets out the government’s next steps and how stakeholders can participate.

The government was interested in receiving representations from all interested parties and stakeholders on the priority areas set out in chapter 3. They were especially interested in receiving representations from businesses and their representatives, local authorities, and rating agents.

They conducted engagement between November 2024 and March 2025, with an initial phase of engagement before Christmas.

The paper could be found here: Transforming business rates - GOV.UK 

The IRRV response can be found here: https://www.irrv.net/documents/weblinks/2025/3/IRRV-Response-Transforming-Business-Rates-28-03-2025.pdf

The Scottish Government invited responses to this consultation on a local authority General Power of Competence.

A General Power of Competence is commonly defined as a statutory power to do “anything that individuals may generally do”, and is currently available to local authorities in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

A number of representations have been made to the Scottish Government seeking the introduction of a similar General Power of Competence for local authorities in Scotland. 

However, despite the existence of a General Power of Competence in England, Wales and Northern Island, many local authorities continue to be reluctant to use that power to explore activity beyond those functions explicitly set out in statute, due to concerns as to potential legal challenge and interpretations by the courts of the limitations of the scope of this power.

This consultation therefore sought to establish what functions, beyond those already conferred by statute, local authorities in Scotland may wish to pursue and whether new legislation or amendments to existing legislation would be required to deliver those additional functions.

This consultation also sought to explore how best to deliver a level of confidence and assurance to local authorities to ensure that any further powers are utilised effectively. 

Responses were sought, in relation to both existing legislative powers in Scotland and the wider legislative powers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, on the barriers to using such power, the concerns and perceived risks and potential conflict with other legislative provisions.

Views were also sought on how best to ensure that legislation contains the right balance of flexibility and control to mitigate risks arising from any greater statutory freedoms.

The consultation could be found here.

The consultation closed on 28 March 2025.

The Law Commission reviewed outdated compulsory purchase laws to support a faster, simpler and more modern land acquisition process.

They published a consultation paper on compulsory purchase as part of a review of the law on compulsory purchase and compensation. They sought views from anyone with an interest in or awareness of this area of law. The consultation was open until 31 March 2025.

The full consultation paper was available, as well as a summary of the consultation paper, and a Welsh version of the summary. 

To meet the Welsh Government’s commitment to improve the appeals process and provide greater transparency, they planned to make the following changes:

• Clearly define the operational responsibilities of each organisation, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and the Valuation Tribunal for Wales (VTW), to improve taxpayers’ understanding of who does what and when.
• Enable the VOA to provide taxpayers with their own property data and any available evidence used to arrive at their banding earlier in the process, thus improving transparency and allowing people to make informed choices as early as possible.
• Ensure the VOA and the VTW clearly set out the choices and next steps in correspondence with the taxpayer and provide an option for taxpayers to withdraw after reviewing property data and evidence provided.
• Remove the automatic referral of an unresolved proposal to the VTW, allowing autonomy for taxpayers to decide how far into the process they wish to go.

The paper could be found at https://www.gov.wales/proposed-changes-council-tax-proposals-and-appeals-system

The closing date for comments was 3 April 2025.

The IRRV response can be found here: IRRV-Response-Wales-CTax-Proposals-and-Appeals.pdf

In November 2023 the Department of Finance consulted on seven rates proposals: four in the non-domestic sector and three in the domestic sector.

The consultation process was advertised in the local press and attracted a significant amount of coverage in local and national media, and social media; it launched on 7 November 2023 and the associated summary consultation report was published on 10 September 2024.

This supplementary consultation built on that process and the feedback provided to the Department.

The two Domestic proposals looked at by the Department in this supplementary consultation were:

1. Increasing the maximum capital value cap (“the cap” or “max cap”) within the domestic rating system from £400,000 to £485,000.
2. Reduction in the Early Payment Discount from 4% to 2%.

The consultation could be found at https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/consultations/supplementary-consultation-domestic-rating-measures.

Closing date for responses was 25 April 2025.

The IRRV Response can be found here: https://www.irrv.net/documents/weblinks/2025/4/IRRV_Response_Consultation_NI_Domestic_Rating_Measures.pdf

This consultation sought views on the Scottish Government’s proposed approach to mitigate the two-child cap policy applied by the UK Government. The two-child cap restricts support through Universal Credit (UC) to the first two children in a family except in some limited circumstances. The consultation paper set out more fully the proposed approach which intends to deliver mitigation payments at pace and in line with the Scottish social security principles.

The Scottish Government proposed to mitigate the two-child cap in Scotland by making a flat-rate payment equal to the UC child element for each third and subsequent child in Scotland.

Mitigation of the two-child cap is not a straightforward task. It will require significant policy and technical work to develop and implement an appropriate solution. This includes co-operation from the UK Government around systems development, data sharing and legislation. The technical delivery of the mitigation must carefully consider risks, issues and dependencies such as data sharing with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The Social Security Programme commenced the ‘discovery’ phase of the project, which will impact delivery options, including joint work with DWP to agree, build and test additional data sharing functions and create a joint delivery plan.

The responses to this consultation, alongside the outputs of that discovery process, will inform the Scottish Government’s approach to drafting the legislation that will be necessary to deliver the payments.

The consultation could be found here: https://consult.gov.scot/social-security/mitigation-of-the-two-child-cap-consultation/

Closing date for responses was 18 April 2025.

This consultation sought views on the implementation of measures in the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023. It focused on the detail of a licensing regime and National Supported Housing Standards and includes content on Housing Benefit.

The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act, which secured Royal Assent on 29 June 2023, gives the Secretary of State powers to introduce a licensing regime for supported housing, and the power to set National Supported Housing Standards for England. It places a duty on local housing authorities to produce supported housing strategies to understand current availability and future need for supported housing.

This consultation sought views on how government will implement the measures and inform the drafting of regulations and accompanying guidance. It also informed work by the Department for Work and Pensions on linking licensing to entitlement to claim Housing Benefit in England and any opportunities to link to existing frameworks in Scotland and Wales. It also included work to define care, support and supervision in Housing Benefit regulations for Great Britain. 

The consultation can be found here. 

The deadline for responses was 15 May 2025.

The IRRV's response can be found here: IRRV_Response_Supported_Housing_Regulations_Consultation.pdf