General fund revenue account budget: specific guidance notes

Question 1

RA1 Education

Accepted Answer

Note: Treatment of Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and in year Academies conversions and Academies Recoupment.

Exclude any income and expenditure relating to Academies:

Only include ‘Dedicated Schools Grant’ figures net of financing for Academies on the SG form.
If a maintained school is to become an Academy in 2024-25 all related financing and expenditure should be included on the revenue budget to cover the period up until the point it becomes an Academy.

RA110 to RA150 Schools

Include expenditure supported by the Dedicated Schools Grant and Pupil Premium Grant, gross of grant income – record actual grant income on SG102 and SG103 respectively.

First and middle schools should be classified as either primary or secondary on the basis of the relevant deeming order.

RA110 Early years

Delegated nursery school budgets
Early years free entitlement
High needs budget for early years
Grants devolved to nursery schools – gross expenditure
LA / corporate expenditure attributable to early years provisions

RA120 Primary schools – including nursery classes in primary schools

Delegated primary school budgets
Delegated items (England)
High needs budget for primary education
Grants devolved to primary schools – gross expenditure
LA / corporate expenditure attributable to primary schools

RA130 Secondary schools

Include special education units attached to secondary schools.

Record expenditure gross of income from the EFA grant for sixth forms, which should be recorded only on SG716.

Delegated secondary school budgets
Delegated items (England)
High needs budget for secondary education
Grants devolved to secondary schools – gross expenditure
LA / corporate expenditure attributable to secondary schools

RA140 Special schools and alternative provision

Delegated special school and alternative provision budgets
Pupil referral units
Other alternative provision
High needs budget for special schools and alternative provision
Grants devolved to special schools – gross expenditure
LA / corporate expenditure attributable to special schools

Record special education units attached to primary/secondary schools on RA120/130

RA145 Post-16 provision

High needs budget for post-16 provision
LA/corporate expenditure attributable to post-16 provision
Grants devolved to post-16 provision – gross expenditure

RA165 Other education and community budget

Young people’s learning and development

Include provision for 16–18-year-olds other than schools and further education. This also covers non-advanced direct provision on apprenticeships and entry to employment for 16–18-year-olds. This line also includes 14–19 reform, education business links, learning agreement pilots, NEETs, increasing flexibility for 14–16-year-olds, young apprenticeships – key stage 4 for 14- and 15-year-olds, 14–19 fighting funds, i.e. support for learning and development initiatives, and structural support for 16–18-yearolds which has not been included within the lines above.

Adult and community learning

Combines adult education, community education, family learning and other community services (but not the youth service).

Service strategy and other educational functions

Include:

Therapies and other health-related services
Central support services (including music services)
Education welfare service
School improvement
Asset management – education
Statutory/regulatory duties
Premature retirement costs/redundancy costs (new provisions)
Monitoring national curriculum assessment
Educational psychology service
SEN administration, assessment, co-ordination and monitoring
Monitoring of SEN provision
Parent partnership, guidance and information
Home to school or other provider transport: SEN transport expenditure (age 0-25)
Home to school or other provider transport: other home to school transport expenditure
Supply of school places
Pension costs – includes existing early retirement costs
Joint use arrangements
Insurance
Complaints
Strategic management

Question 2

RA2 Transport

Accepted Answer

RA210 Transport planning, policy and strategy

Highways maintenance planning, policy and strategy:

Formulating highways and roads plans and policy
Research to inform policy making, eg: traffic and accident surveys
Assessing the impacts of developments on highways and roads
Highways and roads issues relating to planning applications
Formal adoption of highways and roads
Monitoring street works
Traffic regulation orders; temporary notices including road closures
Maintenance of a road network plan and publishing network information
Enforcing of and making maps of public rights of way, street naming
Public and other transport planning, policy and strategy
Formulating transport plans and policy, including associated research
Contributing to the regional transport strategy
Temporary notices and orders, including road closures made under section 14 of the Road Traffic Act 1994 as amended by the Road Traffic Temporary Restrictions Procedure Regulations 1992

Include monitoring street works under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, whereby the local authority monitors all road works by private parties, utilities, etc.

Groups 230 and 247 Highways and roads – maintenance

Structural, environmental, safety and routine maintenance of public roads covers:

(a) Principal roads (local authority administered “A” roads), including special roads (local authority administered “M” roads) (b) Other local authority roads, including minor roads, footways and cycleways

Record motorways and trunk roads costs recoverable from central government on RA848.

Record maintenance of public footpaths, towpaths and bridleways on RA507.

Exclude private streets and roads not chargeable to the highways account (eg: housing estate roads charged to the HRA; work for statutory undertakers that is not part of highway schemes).

For agency arrangements between shire district councils and county councils, see paragraph 4.3.2 of RA General Guidance. Depots, vehicles, plant and equipment used on non-maintenance road projects should be treated similarly to agency arrangements, recording (a) gross costs, less gross income, less income from recharges, on RA230 to RA249; and (b) recording amounts charged out on lines appropriate for the service provided. If not used for road projects (eg: refuse disposal), charge other appropriate service lines.

RA230 Highways and roads – structural maintenance

Structural maintenance – roads

Reconstruction
Overlay
Resurfacing and surface dressing (including integral patching and minor repairs)
Remedial earthworks
Drainage structures
Repair of fencing, walls and barriers
Cost of third-party liability claims related to structural defects on roads, footpaths etc

Structural maintenance – bridges

All structural maintenance and strengthening of bridges and structures charged to the revenue account, including bridges, tunnels, culverts over 2 metres in span, pedestrian subways, noise barriers on bridges, and assessment work resulting from DfT departmental standards.

RA247 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance

Environmental maintenance

Include the following services, but only to the extent that they are necessary for preservation of the carriageway and for traffic safety, including sight lines:

Tree and verge maintenance, including cutting and clearing
Carriageway sweeping, litter removal, abandoned vehicles, other hazards

Record routine street sweeping/cleaning for environmental purposes on RA570.

Safety maintenance

Maintenance and replacement of existing road markings and studs
Cleaning, repair, replacement and energy costs of:
- Traffic signals, signal gantries, signs
- Crossings
- Illuminated bollards
- Communications equipment for principal motorways

Routine maintenance

Ad-hoc unplanned patching and minor repairs
Drainage cleaning
Cleaning of fencing, walls, barriers, etc (record their repairs on RA230)
Culverts and subways cleaning
Routine inspections

RA248 Winter service

Keeping roads free from snow and ice, including salting, urea treatment, snowploughing; snow fencing, and standby arrangements
Weather forecasting costs
Maintenance and energy for under-road heating
Maintenance and operation of ice detecting equipment

RA249 Street lighting (including energy costs)

Maintenance, inspection and energy costs of street lighting equipment
Extra seasonal lighting, eg: Christmas lights
Lighting pedestrian subways and highway tunnels

Group 250 Traffic management and road safety

RA251 Congestion charging

Expenditure, less income, in respect of congestion charging zones, including the cost of surveys for proposed congestion charging schemes.

Record toll charges which are not in a congestion charging zone on RA280.

RA252 Traffic management – bus lane enforcement

Include bus lane enforcement expenditure and income.

RA254 Road safety education and safe routes (including school crossing patrols)

Road safety education

Publicity, training and other initiatives to improve road safety
Contributions to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
Cycling training/motorcycle proficiency
Schools liaison
Road safety literature
Rehabilitation courses for motor offenders
Safe route schemes (to school, to work, etc)
School crossing patrols

RA258 Other traffic management

Other traffic management

Planning and scheme design (eg: urban safety management schemes, home zones, new pedestrian crossings and traffic calming measures)
Street naming
Traffic monitoring, including CCTV cameras
Area traffic control centres
Administration and enforcement of lorry ban schemes
Research undertaken to inform policy making such as traffic surveys, accident data collection and accident investigations
Traffic regulation orders

Only include specific traffic management schemes and their associated capital charges here; traffic management aspects of larger construction or structural maintenance projects should be included within these projects on RA230.

RA260 Parking services

On-street parking

Parking meters, less income from fees and fines
Residents’ and business parking permit schemes
Traffic wardens employed on parking duties, ie not on policing duties

Off-street parking

The operation and maintenance of all car parks, including car parks supporting park and ride schemes, decriminalised parking regimes, facilities for lorries, car parks authorised by statutes other than the Highways Act (in National Parks, comprehensive development areas, etc).

Staffing costs
Barrier and security equipment
Enforcement of excess charges etc

Group 270 Public transport

All costs incurred in support of the public transport network, either directly or by subsidies to operators or individuals, including administration, monitoring, tendering for and awarding contracts, overseeing public transport service subsidies.

RA271 Statutory concessionary fares

Costs (including administration) of providing the statutory National Concessionary Travel Scheme for older people and eligible disabled people.

Record home/school transport on RA165

RA272 Discretionary concessionary fares

Costs (including administration) of all discretionary elements of any local concessionary travel schemes. This includes concessions during peak hours; for non-educational travel for young people; for companion travel; for disabilities not covered by the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme and on transport other than registered buses.

Please note that education travel should be included under the Education Services on the appropriate lines.

RA275 Support to operators

Bus services

Payments to bus operators
Payments to park and ride operators
Levy payments to Passenger Transport Executives (PTE)
Transport for London expenditure on local bus services
Payments to voluntary groups providing quasi public transport, eg: dial-a-ride

Rail services

Payments to train operators
Expenditure on London Underground and Tyne & Wear Metro services

Other public transport services

ITA payments to PTEs in respect of ferries

RA276 Public transport co-ordination

Provision of general information to the travelling public
Revenue costs of investing in the public transport infrastructure, eg: bus stations and bus shelters
Costs of liaison with transport providers and the travelling public

RA280 Airports, harbours and toll facilities

Airports – directly or partly owned

Including shares of airport companies’ receipts; and any revenue support given.

Record dividend income from public airport companies on RA886.

Harbours, ports and docks – directly owned

Record fishery harbours on RA550.

Piers and jetties – directly owned

Toll roads and tunnels – directly owned

Question 3

RA3 Health and social care

Accepted Answer

RA310 Sure start children’s centres early years

Includes the cost of children’s centres, costs devolved to individual children’s centres, the cost of local authority provided or commissioned services, and management costs relating to children’s centres.

Include salary costs of any qualified teachers and/or early years professional staff employed by children’s centres.

Exclude other early education funding (including funding through the free entitlement, as that is covered elsewhere).

Exclude the cost of services provided in kind by other statutory providers (for example health services or Jobcentre Plus).

RA313 Children looked after

Include the costs of looking after children for continuous periods of more than 24 hours.

Residential care

Fostering services

Adoption services

Special guardianship support

Short breaks (respite) for disabled children looked after

Children placed with family and friends

Include costs on the authority’s children placed with family and friends functions under the Children Act 1989.

Education for children looked after

Include costs on the services provided to promote the education of children looked after by the authority (e.g. looked after children education service teams and training for designated teachers).

Exclude any funding delegated to schools for looked after children.

Leaving care support services

Include the authority’s leaving care support services functions under the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000.

Asylum seekers

Include planned expenditure of those asylum-seeking children who are looked after (also see RA326).

Other children looked after services

Include support to looked after children and young people:

In NHS/other establishments providing nursing/medical care
Residential, respite and emergency nights in residential beds at family centres
In lodgings or hostels
In mother and baby homes
Living independently in flats or bed and breakfast establishments or with friends
In residential employment
Independent visitor costs and relevant contact payments under sections 20/34 of the Children Act 1989 not included under Residential Care or ‘Fostering services’
In secure accommodation welfare (as set out at Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act)
Advocacy services for children looked after.

RA315 Other children and family services

Include other budgeted spend that cannot be placed under another specific heading but contributes to overall spending on children’s and young people’s services.

Also include budgeted spend here:

Grants to voluntary organisations that cannot be specifically placed under another children’s heading
Counselling services
Generic services in support of children that abuse substances not included elsewhere.

RA322 Family support services

Direct payments

Include the value of direct payments made to 16- and 17-year-olds who are disabled under section 17(10) of the Children Act 1989, payments made to the carers (eg parents) of disabled children aged under 18 and payments made to 16- and 17-year-olds who act as carers for the purchase of care services. Also include the costs of administering the payments.

Short break (respite) for disabled children

Include all provision for short-breaks (respite) services for disabled children in need but not looked after. Include the costs of:

Short breaks utilising a residential setting – including overnight stays, day care and sessional visits to the setting
Family-based overnight and day care short-break services – including those provided through contract and family link carers
Sitting or sessional short break services in the child’s home, or supporting the child to access activities in the community.

Other support for disabled children

Include Children’s Services’ contribution to equipment and adaptations such as:

Adaptations to homes to help children remain at home
Disability equipment for children, including wheelchairs
Special telephones for the use of children
Other communications and community equipment
Stores, delivery and other associated costs.

Exclude contributions by the Housing service, the Adult Social Care service and local NHS services

Targeted family support

Targeted family support services are those focused on particular vulnerable families, including but not limited to families receiving support through the Troubled Families programme.

Include budgeted spending in the following areas that were previously captured under separate lines in this data collection:

Contribution to the health care of individual children. This is expenditure where there is a need to support a child. This includes non-statutory innovative initiatives or pilot programmes, eg family nurse partnerships. These could be funded privately, by the local authority, or jointly by the local authority and the primary care trust.
Home care services. This is home care provided to help look after a child at home; for example, home helps, domiciliary care assistants, and support or payments to voluntary workers or organisations providing home care services. Also include the costs of administration of home care for children.
Intensive family interventions. Include expenditure for providing intensive family interventions which support the programme led by the Troubled Families Unit to turn around the lives of troubled families. Common characteristics include each family having access to a dedicated practitioner who delivers support and co-ordinates the work of other agencies, ensuring that a support/care plan is in place which outlines actions and timescales. These interventions commonly include pre- and post-measurements of how circumstances for the family have changed.

Other areas of spend that could be included in this line are:

Payments or gifts in kind to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need
Community support workers (peripatetic support staff who supervise children at risk, children in need, and learning in the community, and liaise with other agencies, CPNs, etc), outreach workers, family support or aid workers, and others working with those families but whose duties do not fit the home care definition
Expenditure on support for carers rather than clients (including young carers) that is not included in any of the other divisions of service
Family contact supervision
Residence orders paid for

Universal family support

Universal family support is open to all, regardless of their family circumstances or perceptions of vulnerability.

This includes support provided in the community for children who do not have a particular need that has been already identified (but who may be in a disadvantaged group), such as home-school liaison services funded by the local authority, peer-to-peer support services, such as Home-Start, and relationship support.

Include activity such as that funded via the Holiday activities and food programme

RA323 Youth justice

Include the costs of services related to young offenders including youth offending teams:

Costs of providing or purchasing secure accommodation for children who pose a risk to themselves or to others, or who have a security requirement placed on them for youth justice reasons under section 53 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. Include all other remand facilities for a young offender, eg under section 97 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998
Costs of social services staff and support facilities for youth offender teams under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998
Community services costs
Remand fostering costs, ie payments to carers and supervision costs where a court has made an order that an alleged young offender should be held securely in the community rather than being placed in an institution
Bail support schemes
Other youth justice costs

RA325 Safeguarding children and young people’s services

Social workers are directly involved with the care of children and with the commissioning of services for children. Include most of the direct social work costs (except those detailed below).

Also include the processes for assessing need, determining and defining the service to be provided and reviewing the quality of and continued relevance of that care for children. Also include:

Field social work costs (include hospital social workers)
Occupational therapy services to children
Relevant support staff costs
Child protection social work costs.

Exclude social work costs in support of foster carers and adoptive families as these are captured elsewhere.

Commissioning and children’s services strategy

Include budgeted spending on overall commissioning within Children’s and Young People’s Services, such as the cost of a central commissioning function.

Also include any additional expenditure on services that are bought in from outside the local authority to support the central commissioning function. Where joint commissioning units have been set up, eg between the local authority and the primary care trust, include the overall costs of maintaining the joint unit.

Exclude the costs of the actual services commissioned as well as any social worker costs related to commissioning as these are captured elsewhere. Also exclude costs of commissioning services specifically for Sure Start children’s centres.

For the children’s services strategy element, include partnership costs for multi-agency working, ie contributions from the authority to partnership manager and other costs. Do not include pooled budget contributions for specific front-line services. Include spending on statutory regulatory duties related to children’s services that are not included in ‘Service strategy and other educational functions’.

Local safeguarding children board

Includes costs of the authority’s local safeguarding children board functions under the Children Act 2004 and The Local Safeguarding Children Boards Regulations 2006.

RA326 Asylum seekers

Include services to unaccompanied children and families:

Assessment and care management
Unaccompanied children: cost of finding accommodation, ensuring education including costs of peripatetic support workers and grants to voluntary organisations that support unaccompanied children. (Note this excludes unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who meet the definition of Children Looked After (RA313))
Families: Accommodation advice and assistance for families including costs of peripatetic support workers and grants to voluntary organisations that support asylum-seeking families.

RA327 Services for young people

Services for young people (aged 13 to 19) encompasses all local authority expenditure on the provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities, including youth work and delivery of their duties to support young people to participate in education or training. The scope of the activities covered by this is defined in Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities on Services and Activities to Improve Young People’s Well-being issued in June 2012 by the Secretary of State for Education and targeted support services for young people.

Targeted services for young people

Targeted services are those focused on supporting early intervention for vulnerable young people, including but not limited to those at risk of teenage pregnancy, substance misuse, youth crime and not being in education, employment or training.

Include those services that are targeted towards supporting individual young people on a one-to-one basis (eg counselling), groups of young people (for example young people at risk of gang involvement) or specific localities (for example detached youth work in areas that have high instances of anti-social behaviour). Include:

Youth work
Activities for young people
Services to support young people’s participation in education or training
Substance misuse services
Teenage pregnancy services
Discretionary awards
Student support

Universal services for young people

Universal and open access services are open to all young people, regardless of their circumstances or perception of vulnerability. Include:

Youth work
Activities for young people
Services to support young people’s participation in education or training
Substance misuse services
Teenage pregnancy services
Discretionary awards; and student support

Long Term support – nursing

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Include Long Term placements in:

Care homes with nursing care registered by health authorities and by definition requiring trained nursing staff to be present
Nursing care beds in dual registered homes.

Local authorities should record their contributions to nursing care placements in this subdivision of service, even if this contribution is residential placement for this care.

Long Term support – residential

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Include Long Term placements in:

Homes registered under Registered Care Homes Act 1984
Residential care beds in dual registered homes

Long Term support – supported accommodation

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Include Long Term placements in:

Adult placement schemes (Shared Lives)
Hostels
Unstaffed homes
Partially staffed homes
Group homes

Long Term support – community: direct payments

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Direct payment describes a payment process where support is given via the issue of monetary payments directly to adult clients who have been assessed as needing certain services (eg the issue of a personal budget solely via direct payment of funds to the recipient).

Exclude the cost of administering the payments to clients; this should be included under Commissioning and Service Delivery.

Exclude grants to voluntary organisations that support direct payments users; these should be included under Information and Early Intervention.

Exclude direct payments to support carers of adults with physical support needs, which should be included under Social Support: Support for Carer.

Long Term support – community: homecare

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Homecare or domiciliary care provided in an individual’s own home, normally of a personal nature, to enable an individual to continue with their daily life (eg help with eating or drinking, toileting, washing or bathing, dressing, oral care or the care of skin, hair and nails). It may also include prompting and supervision of an individual’s self-care.

Long Term support – community: supported living

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Supported living covers a range of services that support people to live as independently as possible in the community. Service users are responsible for their own tenancies, own their home or are living with family or friends. They receive an agreed level of care and support tailored to their individual needs. Service users’ support needs may vary, from those who are very able and receive support for a few hours a week to those who require support 24 hours a day.

Long Term support – community: other Long Term care

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Short Term support to maximise independence

All episodes of support provided that are intended to be time-limited and to maximise the independence of the individual and reduce/eliminate their need for ongoing support. At the end of the support, a review or assessment for ongoing care will take place to determine what will follow.

Such an assessment or review will need to have taken place several weeks after the start of the episode. This does not mean that the actual service has ceased, but that a review has been held, the support need has been assessed or reviewed, a decision to continue or not has been made, and a sequel can be clearly identified.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Short Term support to maximise independence includes reablement services.

Exclude any episodes of respite care that may also be time-limited. This support is usually provided as part of a longer-term support package for a client, is commissioned only because of the existence of a carer who needs support, and is considered a carers’ service.

Exclude emergency support (ie not to maximise independence but a crisis support service), which should be included in ‘Other Short Term support’.

Exclude assistive equipment and technology.

Other Short Term support

All episodes of support provided that are intended to be time-limited but are not intended to maximise the independence of the individual (eg emergency support following a spell in hospital). At the end of the support, a review or assessment will take place to determine what will follow.

Please note that it is possible for a client to have concurrent short and Long Term support; for example, an existing (ongoing) Long Term support client who could benefit from Short Term support because of a change in their situation or circumstances (eg a spell in hospital as an emergency).

The costs of support for such clients should be allocated separately to the underlying intentions behind each form of support, ie the costs of the client’s Short Term support included in the Short Term measure, with the costs of their ongoing Long Term support included in the Long Term measure.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Exclude assistive equipment and technology.

RA332 and RA333 Physical support

Services attributable to adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to physical support. Include support with access and mobility and the more intensive support described as personal care support (as defined in the Health and Social Care Act 2008).

Costs should be analysed according to the following age groups:

RA332

Adults (18–64) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

RA333

Older people (65+) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

RA334 and RA335 Sensory support

Services attributable to adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to sensory support. Include visual impairment, hearing impairment or dual impairment.

Costs should be analysed according to the following age groups:

RA334

Adults (18–64) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

RA335

Older people (65+) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

RA336 and RA337 Support with memory and cognition

Services attributable to adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to Support with Memory and Cognition. Include support and services for clients with conditions affecting their thinking, knowing, awareness and remembering processes.

Costs should be analysed according to the following age groups:

RA336

Adults (18–64) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

RA337

Older people (65+) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

RA340 and RA341 Learning disability support

Services attributable to adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to learning disability support. Include services provided to assist individuals with understanding new or complex information and learning and applying new skills.

Costs should be analysed according to the following age groups:

RA340

Adults (18–64) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

RA341

Older people (65+) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

RA344 and RA345 Mental health support

Services attributable to adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to mental health support. Include conditions or disorders of the mind involving thoughts, behaviours, and emotions that cause significant distress to either the person him/herself or others. Significant distress can mean the person is unable to function, meet personal needs on their own, or are a danger to themselves or others.

Costs should be analysed according to the following age groups:

RA344

Adults (18–64) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

RA345

Older people (65+) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

Services attributable to all adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to social support: substance misuse support. These are services or interventions for clients who have regular and problematic intoxication through excessive consumption of and/or dependence on psychoactive substances. It includes the use of both legal and illegal drugs and includes alcohol.

Examples of the types of services offered for substance misuse include:

Community drug and alcohol services
Rehabilitation
Harm reduction interventions

Services or interventions for registered asylum seekers. Includes:

Supported access to health, housing or education services
Language/interpreter support
Providing advice and information
Access to legal advice

Services attributable to adults and younger carers of adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to social support: support for carer. Include services or interventions undertaken in order to support an individual in their role of caring for another person.

Community: direct payments

Direct payment describes a payment process where support is given via the issue of monetary payments directly to clients who have been assessed as needing certain services (eg the issue of a grant payment to support a carer). Include the value of direct payments made to support all carers regardless of the primary support reason of the adult they are caring for.

Community: other support for carer

Include any other services attributable to supporting carers.

This includes support provided with the intention of reducing the social isolation of individuals, such as sitting and befriending services.

RA353 Assistive equipment and technology

Include costs attributable to all adults regardless of their primary support reason. Include:

All items of equipment or minor adaptations funded by the authority with the intention of helping an individual in their daily living, including to have a greater sense of reassurance
The cost of telecare service contracts
The cost of maintenance contracts and safety inspections

Exclude equipment grant-aided by central government or funded by the authority’s housing service.

Includes any staff or other revenue expenditure associated with social work practice in relation to supporting individuals through a care or risk management process.

Include:

Assessment. Front-line assessment of clients, including through initial allocation or intake functions.
Review. Front-line reviews of clients.
Care management. Providing other care management activities with clients, such as detailed planning of support to meet their eligible needs, brokerage and navigation following a statutory assessment or review; and ongoing professional support.
Safeguarding. Supporting all aspects of front-line safeguarding activity, from raising initial concerns to investigations and developing safeguarding plans to minimise risk.
Costs associated with undertaking carers’ assessments and reviews or providing professional support to carers.

Exclude expenditure associated with commissioning or infrastructure.

Exclude expenditure associated with the care, support and daily living solutions resulting from this care management process (with the exception of professional support), whether low-level preventative, Short Term or Long Term.

RA355 Information and early intervention (non-attributable costs)

Includes expenditure on any service or support for which there is no test of eligibility and no requirement for review.

Include:

Information and advice. Expenditure on advice and publication teams, leaflets and advertising, websites and other information channels.
Screening and signposting. Investment in contact centres, one-stop shops, advice services, etc.
Prevention/low-level support. Non-attributable costs for drop in centres, supported luncheon clubs, falls prevention and low-level brokerage services (eg supporting access to full costed services such as gardening or shopping).
Independent advocacy. Costs of supporting advocacy and associated functions.

Exclude expenditure associated with front-line access of clients to assessment or care management processes, including safeguarding.

Exclude expenditure associated with the resulting care, support and daily living solutions themselves, whether Short Term or Long Term.

Exclude expenditure associated with assistive equipment and technology.

Exclude expenditure associated with commissioning or infrastructure.

RA356 Commissioning and service delivery (non-attributable costs)

Includes expenditure on commissioning or commissioning-related functions and infrastructure costs.

Include:

Strategic business direction (eg needs analysis, policy or strategic development)
Business planning (including business development, performance and budget planning and monitoring)
Commissioning and de-commissioning functions
Commissioning, procurement and management (including market management, contract procurement and provider monitoring)
Communications and personal protective equipment
Governance and support (eg admin, finance, IT and information management, legal, non-front-line quality assurance, audit and risk management)
Responding to complaints and complaint management
Infrastructure: building and premises management, IT.

Exclude front-line facilitation of clients’ access to assessment or care management, including safeguarding.

Exclude expenditure associated with the resulting care, support and daily living solutions themselves, whether low-level preventative, Short Term or Long Term.

RA358 Disbursement payment to care providers

This category was added in 2021 to both the budget and outturn collections to enable recording of payments arising as a result of e.g. the infection control fund.

Public health

RA361 Sexual health - STI testing and treatment (prescribed functions)

STI testing and treatment, including prophylaxis after sexual exposure, chlamydia screening as part of the National Chlamydia Screening Programme, and HIV testing. For example, costs should include STI testing and treatment in GUM clinics, community programmes (including pharmacies), any local contracts with GPs (e.g. as part of the National Chlamydia Screening Programme), any testing service (e.g. postal testing for chlamydia or HIV), and any laboratory costs associated with STI/HIV testing.

RA362 Sexual health - Contraception (prescribed functions)

Provision of contraceptive information giving and decision making support and the provision of all methods of contraception and emergency contraception for people of all ages. For example, include contraceptive provision in genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics, sexual and reproductive health clinics and/or the community, any local arrangements made with GPs for the provision of advice and supplies of contraception which are not covered by the GP contract (e.g. in relation to the fitting and removal of implants, intrauterine systems and devices) and any local contracts with pharmacies.

RA363 Sexual health – Promotion, prevention and advice (non-prescribed functions)

Provision of sexual health promotional activities or interventions with advice
Provision of sexual health advice, promotional activities or interventions
Outreach work
Locally developed information or campaigns and/or materials for promoting good sexual health
HIV prevention and sexual health promotion work, preventative intervention services in schools, colleges, pharmacies and help lines
Sexual health elements of teenage pregnancy prevention
Other elements of sexual health and reproductive healthcare, e.g. pregnancy testing, assessment and referral for abortion as part of LA commissioned sexual health services, and sexual health aspects of psycho-sexual counselling

RA365 NHS Health Check Programme (prescribed functions)

Risk assessment elements of the NHS Health Check Programme
Cohort identification and management
Marketing specific to the NHS Health Check programme

Exclude smoking cessation lifestyle intervention following NHS Health Check risk assessment (include in the ‘Stop smoking services and interventions’ (RA381) subdivision).

Exclude weight management lifestyle intervention following NHS Health Check risk assessment (include in the ‘Adult obesity’ (RA371) subdivision).

Exclude physical activity lifestyle intervention following NHS Health Check risk assessment (include in the ‘Physical activity for adults’ (RA373) subdivision).

Exclude intensive lifestyle management for non-diabetic hyperglycaemia, impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance (include in ‘Miscellaneous public health services’ (RA389) subdivision).

Exclude alcohol lifestyle intervention following the NHS Health Check risk assessment (include in the ‘Treatment for alcohol misuse in adults’ and ‘Preventing and reducing harm from alcohol misuse in adults’ (RA377 and RA379) categories).

Exclude memory services following the NHS Health Check risk assessment include in older people (65+) (RA333, RA335, RA337, RA341 and RA345) subdivisions).

RA366 Health protection - Local authority role in health protection (prescribed functions)

Steps carried out to protect the health of the population; for example, advising on health protection planning.

Exclude any costs related to duties under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 (RA529).

RA368 National child measurement programme (prescribed functions)

Delivery of the mandatory elements of the National Child Measurement Programme – weighing and measuring of eligible children and the central return of the data.

Exclude the cost of any services that the child or family may be referred to (spend recorded elsewhere).

RA370 Public health advice to NHS commissioners (prescribed functions)

The provision of healthcare public health advice to NHS commissioners on the commissioning of NHS services.
Any general data collection, collation, management, analysis and interpretation, or data presentation and reporting towards the provision of this duty to NHS commissioners.

Exclude any general information and intelligence not related to the provision of population-based public health advice to NHS commissioners on the commissioning of NHS services (the mandatory function) which should be recorded under Miscellaneous Public Health Services (RA389).

Obesity

Exclude BMI assessment undertaken specifically as part of an NHS Health Check (record under NHS Health Check Programme – RA365).

Exclude any interventions which are covered in the Physical Activity service division (RA373-374) or in the ‘Nutrition initiatives’ subdivision of Miscellaneous Public Health Services (RA389) or as part of the Healthy Schools Programme (include in the Children 5–19 Public Health Programmes (RA383) division of service).

Exclude breastfeeding support and the baby-friendly initiative (spend should be recorded under the ‘Nutrition initiatives’ subdivision of Miscellaneous Public Health Services (RA389).

RA371 Obesity - adults

BMI assessment/identification of the overweight and obese.
Commissioned brief/community lifestyle weight management interventions for adults.
Specialised weight management interventions for adults (eg dietetics and community dietetics, obesity clinics, etc).
Workplace weight management programmes.
Obesity prevention programmes, which may include programmes focusing on healthy eating/cooking, physical activity or healthy lifestyles.
Social marketing in relation to obesity, including Change4Life initiatives and work with local Change4Life supporters.

RA372 Obesity - children

Follow-up to the National Child Measurement Programme (non-mandatory element) – providing result letters to parents and/or proactive follow-up.
Commissioned brief/community lifestyle weight management interventions for children up to age 19.
Specialised weight management interventions for children up to age 19 (eg dietetics and community dietetics, obesity clinics, etc).
Obesity prevention programmes, which may include activities in early years settings such as children’s centres.
Obesity prevention programmes in schools or in partnership with schools (including healthy meals initiatives).

RA373 Physical activity – adults

Let’s Get Moving/commissioned physical activity brief interventions.
Active travel (ie travelling actively for everyday journeys) initiatives.
Community-based recreational walking and cycling schemes.
Sports-based interventions.
Investment in county sport partnerships.
Other physical activity interventions.
Local information campaigns to promote physical activity and sport.

RA374 Physical activity - children

As above (‘Physical activity for adults’), but for anything solely aimed at children aged up to 18 years.

Substance misuse

Exclude the costs of implementing local young people’s substance misuse strategies; the cost of specialist substance misuse treatment services and placements for under 18s; and targeted prevention initiatives, which should be accounted for under the relevant subdivisions within Children’s and Education Services.

Exclude any spend on reintegration or homeless outreach services funded through other means.

Exclude residential rehabilitation funded through other means, e.g. from the community care budget.

Exclude any social-service-funded interventions such as case management and day treatment programmes.

Exclude any general universal or targeted prevention activity funded through the Early Intervention Grant.

RA376 Substance misuse - Treatment for drug misuse in adults

All structured drug treatment, e.g. care-planned psycho-social and pharmacological intervention including in-patient treatment.
Residential rehabilitation (include any public health spend that is pooled alongside adult community care budgets for this purpose).

RA377 Substance misuse - Treatment for alcohol misuse in adults

Tier 3 interventions, e.g. community-based, structured, care-planned alcohol treatment, such as counselling services and day treatment programmes; and community detoxification.
Tier 4 interventions, e.g. alcohol specialist inpatient treatment such as detoxification.

RA378 Substance misuse - Preventing and reducing harm from drug misuse in adults

Harm reduction and open access services, eg harm reduction strategy activities; needle and syringe programmes and equipment; and any programmes to prevent drug misuse through targeted health improvement activity.

RA379 Substance misuse - Preventing and reducing harm from alcohol misuse in adults

Tier 1 interventions, e.g. alcohol-related information, any locally commissioned identification and brief advice.
Tier 2 interventions, e.g. open-access non-care-planned alcohol-specific advice and counselling.
Reducing alcohol harm in the population through targeted health improvement activity.

RA380 Substance misuse - Specialist drug and alcohol misuse services for children and young people

Include spend on any specialist substance misuse (drug and alcohol) intervention activities that are solely aimed at children and young people aged up to 18.

RA381 Smoking and tobacco - Stop smoking services and interventions

Local stop smoking services.
Local incentive schemes to encourage brief interventions and referrals to local stop smoking services.

RA382 Smoking and tobacco - Wider tobacco control

Preventing uptake (including schools-based activity).
Smoke-free places initiatives.
Regulatory and enforcement activity.
Tackling illicit tobacco in the community including contributions to multi-local- authority (e.g. regional) activities.
Communications and marketing campaigns including contributions to multi-local-authority (e.g. regional) activities.

Exclude normal regulatory and enforcement activity carried out by local authority regulatory services e.g. trading standards (RA519).

RA383 Children 5–19 public health programmes

School health promotion, e.g. Healthy Schools Programme.
Health promotion and prevention interventions.
School nursing services.
Healthy Child Programme 5–19.

Exclude drug or sexual health intervention services to children and young people, which are accounted for under the relevant headings in Children’s Services.

RA384 Mandated 0-5 children’s services (prescribed functions)

Include:

Antenatal health promoting visits

This includes the antenatal health promoting visits which support preparation for parenthood. They are delivered by a Health Visitor (or at their discretion a suitably qualified health professional), a Family Nurse (where the family is accessing FNP) or a person who is trained in child health and development.

New baby review

This includes the face-to-face review completed by 14 days with the mother and father. The Health Visitor (or at their discretion a suitably qualified health professional), a Family Nurse (where the family is accessing FNP) or a person who is trained in child health and development will include in the review:

infant feeding
promoting sensitive parenting
promoting development
assessing maternal mental health
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
keeping safe

At the parents wish or if there are professional concerns this review could also include:

an assessment of baby’s growth
ongoing review and monitoring of the baby’s health
safeguarding

6–8-week assessment

This includes the 6-8 week assessment led by a Health Visitor (or at their discretion a suitably qualified health professional), a Family Nurse (where the family is accessing FNP) or a person who is trained in child health and development. The assessment provides ongoing support with breastfeeding (involving both parents) and an assessment of maternal mental health.

1-year assessment

This includes by one year an assessment of the baby’s physical, emotional and social needs in the context of their family, to include:

predictive risk factors
supporting parenting (providing parents with information about attachment and the type of developmental issues that they may now encounter)
monitoring growth, and health promotion (including raising awareness of dental health and prevention)
healthy eating, and injury and accident prevention (relating to mobility, safety in cars and skin cancer prevention)

Led by a Health Visitor (or at their discretion a suitably qualified health professional), a Family Nurse (where the family is accessing FNP) or a person who is trained in child health and development.

2–2½-year review

This includes between two and two and half years a review which:

reviews with parents the child’s social, emotional, behavioural and language development
responds to any parental concerns about physical health, growth, development, hearing and vision
offers parents guidance on behaviour management and opportunity to share concerns
offers parents information on what to do if worried about their child, promotes language development
encourages and supports take up of early years education, gives health information and guidance
reviews immunisation status, offers advice on nutrition and physical activity for the family
raises awareness of dental care, accident prevention, sleep management, toilet training and sources of parenting advice and family information

Led by a Health visitor (FNP finishes when the child turns 2) or a person who is trained in child health and development.

RA385 All Other 0-5 children’s services (non-prescribed functions)

Include all universal elements of the healthy child programme. Also include targeted services and the family nurse partnership (FNP).

This includes:

Delivery of the wider Healthy Child Programme, including:

Community services: linking families and resources and building community capacity.
Universal service (excluding the specific five universal health visitor reviews): primary prevention and early intervention provided for all families and children aged 0-5 as per the Healthy Child Programme universal schedule of visits, assessments and developmental reviews.
Universal plus services: time limited support on specific issues offered to families with children aged 0-5 where there has been an assessed or expressed need for more targeted support.
Universal partnership plus services: offered to families with children aged 0-5 where there is a need for ongoing support and interagency partnership working; particularly for families with more complex needs.

Delivery of the Family Nurse Partnership Programme:

Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) preventive programme for vulnerable first time young mothers, excluding the elements in the prescribed functions.

For more information please see the Scope of 0-5 public health services document.

RA386 Health at work

External workplace health (e.g. advice to employers on commissioning occupational health support, but excluding internal workplace interventions and occupational health).
Initiatives aimed at getting workers or the unemployed back to work more quickly following a period of ill health.
Staff education around workplace health.
Workplace award schemes.

RA387 Public mental health

Mental wellbeing promotion.
Mental illness prevention.
Anti-stigma and discrimination.
Suicide and self-harm prevention.

RA389 Miscellaneous public health services - other

Nutrition initiatives

Promoting a balanced diet.
Five a Day (all activity, including grants to other organisations).
Breastfeeding support.
School fruit and veg scheme.
Baby-friendly initiative.

Accident prevention

For example, identification of people at risk from falling.

Exclude any activity that contributes to accident prevention quantified in other categories (e.g. Obesity and Physical Activity (RA371 to RA374) divisions).

General prevention

General behavioural/lifestyle campaigns/services to prevent cancer (including skin cancer) and long-term conditions.
Cardiovascular disease prevention additional to the NHS Health Check Programme.
General initiatives targeted at particular groups vulnerable to poor health outcomes.
General health promotion activities.

Exclude specific activity quantified in other categories, e.g. NHS Health Check spend (RA365).

Outreach workers, targeted preventative activities, and victim support for activities tackling crime and disorder, community safety and new entrants to the youth justice system.
Specialist services for victims of domestic violence.
Specific support for families with multiple problems (note: only include contribution from public health grant, i.e. exclude spend from other sources),
Specific public health initiatives to tackle social isolation.

Dental public health

Supervised tooth-brushing schemes.
Milk fluoridation scheme.
Fluoride varnish programmes.
Brushing for Life.
Intra-regional co-ordination of dental epidemiology programme.
Any data collection, collation, co-ordination and staff calibration for any national or local surveys of public dental health.

Fluoridation

Water fluoridation costs (revenue).

Infectious disease surveillance and control

Include awareness raising or behaviour change initiatives and public health support for communicable disease control programmes.
And any training in the community (e.g. about healthcare associated infections).

Environmental hazards protection

This subdivision should only include spend from the public health grant.

Seasonal death reduction initiatives

This subdivision should only include spend from the public health grant. Some social care services may contribute to this area, but are accounted for elsewhere.

Birth defect prevention

Any population-level interventions to reduce and prevent birth defects.

Other public health services.

Any spend from the public health grant used to tackle the wider and social determinants of health and health inequalities not already recorded in any other category.
NHS Health Check Programme – intensive lifestyle management for non-diabetic hyper-glycaemia, impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance.

Exclude the mandatory elements of the NHS Health Check programme, which should be recorded under the NHS Health Check Programme (RA365) division of service.

RA391 Test, track and trace and outbreak planning

Self-explanatory category which was among the batch of changes agreed and announced in Autumn 2020.

RA392 Other Public health spend relating to COVID-19

Self-explanatory category which was among the batch of changes agreed and announced in Autumn 2020.

Question 4

RA4 Housing

Accepted Answer

RA409 Housing strategy, advice, advances, enabling, renewals and licensing

Housing strategy

Review of housing needs, eg housing conditions survey
Preparation of strategic plans, e.g. home energy conservation plan
Government initiative bids, e.g. Housing Market Renewal
Preparing joint ventures
Liaison with external bodies
DOE circular 8/95 makes it clear that Housing Strategy should include costs incurred as a consequence of a LSVT, except the costs of the statutory duty to consult (section 106A of Schedule 3A to HA 1985)

A share of housing strategy costs should also be charged to the HRA.
Record environmental health housing standards on RA523

Housing advice

Since the Housing Act 1996, each council has to provide a housing advice service to people housed privately. Where staff are employed solely or substantially to fulfil this duty, their costs and appropriate overhead costs should be included here in the GF.

It is inevitable that some advice will be given to non-council tenants by staff in area council housing offices which, thus, will be charged to the HRA. Where this is the case, the council should consider whether any of the costs of the area office should in fact be borne here in the GF/CF rather than by the HRA.

Do not include advice covering homelessness which should be shown under the separate Homelessness RA440.

Housing advances

Advances under the Housing and Small Dwellings Acquisitions Acts, etc
Administration of advances to individuals to purchase their property

Exclude: Amortised deferred charges falls under capital items (not collected anymore).

Exclude: mortgage interest payments by the mortgagors – this should be shown on RA886 “Interest and investment income (-): external receipts and dividends” as income.

Enabling

Costs associated with the enabling function of the authority including Registered Social Landlords:

Day-to-day liaison costs
Nomination fees paid, except where related to homelessness
Waiting list management

Private sector housing renewal

Administration of financial support for repairs and improvements, including:

Home improvement grants
Home insulation grants
Housing renovation grants incl. home repair and minor works assistance
Houses in multiple occupancy (HMO) grant
Grants Agency arrangements
Issuing deferred action notices

Renewal activity:

Renewal areas
Housing action areas
General improvement areas
Group repair schemes
Compulsory purchase orders

Management orders

Prohibition orders and improvement notices

Empty homes and dwellings

Slum clearance

Including the cost of demolition orders and compulsory purchase activities.

Other neighbourhood regeneration

Include any other costs associated with neighbourhood regeneration and other initiatives not accounted for under slum clearance.

Home improvement agencies – revenue costs

Licensing of private sector landlords

Licensing of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs)
Selective licensing of other private rented properties

RA440 Homelessness

Include associated costs such as the provision of furniture, property maintenance, rent guarantees, nomination fees, and payment of housing benefits to homeless people (recharged as “other income” – see RA812).

Hostels (non-Housing Revenue Account)

Used mainly to house homeless people.

Bed and breakfast accommodation

Privately owned or managed hotels or guest houses with shared facilities.

Other nightly paid, privately managed accommodation

Private managed accommodation leased by the authority

Private managed accommodation leased by RSLs

Directly with a private sector landlord

Accommodation within the authority’s own stock (non-Housing Revenue Account)

Accommodation within RSL stock

Other temporary accommodation

Include any other expenditure on housing for homeless people including payments to/for:

Caravans
Demountables
Portacabins
Transportables
Supported lodgings placements

Temporary accommodation administration

Administration cost of managing temporary accommodation placements under homelessness duties.

Homelessness service staffing costs

All staffing expenditure to provide prevention, relief and main homelessness duty.

Homelessness service non-staffing costs

All non-staffing expenditure to provide prevention, relief and main homelessness duty.

Group 450 Housing benefits payments

RA456 Rent allowances and rent rebates – discretionary payments

Rent allowances – discretionary payments

Discretionary rent allowances paid to the tenants of private landlords and registered social landlords.

Record mandatory payments of rent allowances on RA811.

Non-HRA rent rebates – discretionary payments

Discretionary rent rebates paid to council tenants living in non-HRA dwellings.

Record mandatory payments of non-HRA rent rebates on RA812.
Record housing benefit paid to the homeless on RA440.

Rent rebates to HRA tenants – discretionary payments

Discretionary enhancements to statutory rent rebates, eg: for war widows.

Record mandatory payments of rent rebates to HRA tenants on RA813.

Discretionary housing payments

Subsidy limitation transfers from HRA

Record such transfers between the HRA and GFRA on RA814.

RA457 Housing benefits administration

Administration costs of assessing and paying housing benefits (rent allowances and rent rebates), regardless of whether benefits were accounted within the HRA or GFRA.

Authorities administering housing benefit and council tax support administration together, should allocate an appropriate estimate of gross expenditure (inclusive of Fraud Incentive Scheme costs) to both this line, and to RA625.

Record income from the Housing Benefit Subsidy Admin Grant on SG406.

Contribution to the HRA re items shared by the whole community

Record such contributions and other GFRA/HRA transfers on RA818.

RA460 Other council property

Council property held under powers other than section 74 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, and used for non-HRA housing purposes.

Travellers’ sites – accommodation and associated costs.

Non-HRA council property.

RA475 Housing welfare: Supporting People

Housing welfare services provided under the Supporting People programme.

Refer to SeRCOP, and to Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities guidance: Supporting People: Identifying Support Service Cost and the Amount of Pooled Rent Income Financing Support Services.

Supporting people welfare services to vulnerable service users include:

Preventative housing-related support
Tenancy or housing-related support to tenants or householders
The housing-related support services element of services funded by certain legacy funding streams

Supporting people services are provided for the following purposes:

Developing a person’s capacity to live independently in the community, or sustaining their capacity to do so
Expanding tenure choices for persons who might remain in institutional care, or become homeless in breach of their terms of tenancy, if support were not provided
Providing immediate refuge in the case of domestic violence

Strategy

Administration

Commissioning payments to providers

Exclude supporting people expenditure attributable to the HRA.

Record any non-housing ancillary supporting people expenditure on appropriate Social Care RA310 to RA360.

RA478 Other welfare services

Essential Care Services (ECS) provided by wardens in sheltered housing, and other situations where Best Value is achieved if welfare services are provided by housing staff, including:

Assistance with mobility
Assistance at meal times
Assistance with personal appearance and hygiene
Administration of medication
Nursing care

Any non-ECS Social Care should be recorded on RA332 to RA356.

Question 5

RA5 Cultural, environmental and planning

Accepted Answer

RA500 Archives

Archive services provided under the Local Government (Records) Act, including contributions made to authorities with archive powers.

Record archive services not provided under the Local Government (Records) Act on RA505.

RA501 Culture and heritage (excluding archives)

Income earned from visitors to the authority’s historic buildings, museums, galleries, arts events, etc should be netted off against expenditure.

Arts development and support

Direct expenditure on the arts, including photography, purchases of works of art, and temporary exhibitions
Grants or other contributions to individuals or voluntary organisations for the development and support of the arts
Arts and crafts fairs and other events
Arts development and support expenditure that takes place in community centres and halls (for libraries this cost derives from space in shared community facilities; the costs should be apportioned between the services as appropriate)
The costs of artists in residence

Heritage

Repair and maintenance of the authority’s historic buildings and ancient monuments, including recovery of expenses
Costs of compulsory purchase orders, less income from sales of properties so acquired
Initiatives or services designed to develop or maintain an awareness of local history, including grants to certain voluntary groups
Special events to celebrate historical events

Record conservation and listed buildings development control under town and country planning legislation; and planning policy on RA591.

Museums and galleries

All museums and galleries provided by the authority, with permanent collections open to the public
Include the costs of both museums directly provided by the authority and those independent museums which are in receipt of a regular revenue subsidy from the authority
Museum services
Grants to independent museums

Theatres and public entertainment

Theatres
Concert and dance halls
Other entertainment premises, including arts centres and community centres for the arts (see RA506 for community centres for recreation)
Holding dances and festivals
Maintaining a band or orchestra
Arranging and promoting events, eg: concerts, opera, pantomimes, etc
Providing refreshments at events
Making grants to others who provide entertainment such as dance, drama and music (including both amateur and professional societies)

RA506 Sports and leisure and community facilities

Community centres and public halls

Expenditure on premises provided for residents of an area to use for recreation, normally in return for a hire charge.

Include public halls that offer services such as wedding receptions, local drama group plays and badminton, etc. Exclude premises for hire which are integral with libraries which should be included in RA505.

Record community centres used mainly for arts purposes on RA501.

Exclude community centres for Housing Revenue Account council housing tenants.

Sports development and community recreation

Sports development staff and outreach teams, including coaching, training and sports sessions; associated travel costs
Holiday play schemes for children
Planning, marketing and staging of sports events
Purchase and maintenance of sports and recreational equipment (NB permanent equipment on parks or other open spaces should be recorded on RA507 Parks and open spaces)
Grants and rate relief to voluntary or other groups, including sports people and committees; school, community and volunteer initiatives

Indoor sports and recreation facilities

Sports halls, physical recreation and leisure centres
Indoor swimming pools; saunas
Any attached slipper baths, laundry services, hydrotherapy pools, etc

Note: where an indoor facility has some outdoor provision, e.g. a five-a-side football area, include all costs as indoor.

Outdoor sports and recreation facilities

Sports grounds to which there is not free physical access
Running tracks
Artificial skiing
Outdoor swimming pools, lidos and water recreation facilities

Record facilities within the boundaries of community parks and open spaces on RA507.

Golf courses

Include gross expenditure, less income from golf players, refreshments, etc
If a pitch and putt course is part of a park or other community open space, record in line 131 Parks and Open Spaces

RA507 Parks and open spaces (including play areas)

Parks and open spaces

All public open spaces including:

play areas
nature corners
playing fields including eg football pitches to which there is generally free physical access
sports facilities that are an integral part of the park or other open space (otherwise, record on RA506)

Record open spaces solely for educational purposes on RA110 to RA150.

Countryside recreation and management

Facilities in country areas that are aimed at visitors but provide recreation facilities for residents as well, including:

National parks and other country parks including coastal parks

Camping / caravan parks (record travellers’/gypsies’ sites on RA460)
Picnic areas; Nature reserves; Canal work
Footpaths, bridleways and towpaths - including maintaining a map of, and enforcing, public rights of way (if part of a highway, include on appropriate lines RA230 to RA248)

Foreshore

Expenditure on the foreshore (land between the high water limit and the coastline proper) and associated promenade and piers.

Exclude toilets (record on RA528), street cleansing (record on RA570), and other expenditure covered more specifically elsewhere.

Allotments

Expenditure on allotments and rents collected from tenants.

RA504 Tourism

Tourism policy, marketing and development

Developing policies to promote tourism in the area
Developing and managing public/private tourism partnership
Promoting and advertising the area to potential visitors
Managing conference facilities and conference promotion;
Contributions to regional tourist boards, area tourism boards partnerships and destination management organisations
Grants and loans given to support organisations offering attractions or other tourist-related facilities
Tourist conference facilities
Tourist research

Visitor information

Tourist maps and guides, what’s on leaflets, etc.

Visitor centres

Tourist information offices, bureaux and dedicated tourism staff for the provision of information to visitors.

RA505 Library services

Library service

Include expenditure on this statutory service here

When local authorities are fulfilling their statutory duties through a third party, be it through a contractual or a commissioned relationship, and be it with a private contractor or a community-owned facility, this needs to be reflected within the costs of the service.

Library buildings

Premises, staff and other costs associated with the provision of permanent libraries
Fees for overdue books, etc
Reference materials for student research
Archives and records not kept under the Local Government (Records) Act 1962 (record archive services provided under the LG (Records) Act on RA501)
Community services and income earned, including:
- Room hire for local clubs and meetings, drop-in centres
- Exhibitions, bring and buy fetes, etc

Mobile and household library services

Libraries operating from vans, buses, trailers or any other mobile base
Services to house-bound library users
Fees for overdue books, etc

Environmental and regulatory services

RA510 Cemetery, cremation and mortuary services

Cemeteries
Crematoria
Mortuaries – including post-mortem services
Closed churchyards – maintained by the local authority

Regulatory services

RA519 Trading standards

Consumer pricing
Fair trading
Food standards
Product safety
Metrology

RA520 Water safety

All activities aiming to reduce the incidence of water-based poisoning as required by the Water Industry Act 1991.

Monitoring drinking water, including bacteriological analysis.

RA521 Food safety

All activities aiming to reduce the incidence of food poisoning, including administration, research and report writing.

Regular hygiene inspections of food premises
Routine inspection and testing of food samples
Food hygiene courses for people handling food at work, in local communities and ethnic minorities, including training to implement Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP)
Food safety advice on planning applications related to food premises
Production of advisory literature and training materials for food handlers
The cost of licensing butchers’ shops and other premises identified under the Pennington report on food hygiene
The operation of a ‘good hygiene’ certificate scheme
Investigations into food poisoning outbreaks and food-borne illness

Record any licence fee income on RA530.
Record work under the Food and Drugs Acts on RA519.

RA522 Environmental protection

Work to reduce:

Noise and nuisance – noise pollution
Air pollution
Pollution prevention and control
Contaminated land
Anti-fly-tipping work (record the removal of fly-tipped waste on RA581)
Environment crime – which includes littering, dog fouling, fly-tipping, enforcement of trade waste contract and graffiti

RA523 Housing standards

Work to ensure that residents of private sector accommodation live in safe and sanitary conditions, including:

Inspections in response to complaints from residents
Checks on the quality of houses of multiple occupation
Checks on conditions at travellers’ sites
Inspections of hotels, guest and boarding houses
Licensing of houses of multiple occupation
Validation certification

RA524 Health and safety

Inspections, investigations and enforcement of health and safety at types of commercial premises specified in Enforcing Authority Regulations, including:

Shops
Offices
Warehouses
Public laundries and launderettes
Public baths (other than swimming pools)

RA525 Port health (excluding levies)

Checks on the fitness of food and animals in transit at ports and airports
The issuing of de-ratting certificates, less income from these

RA526 Port health levies

RA527 Pest control

Urban and domestic rodent control
Other pest control, including wasps

RA528 Public conveniences

The running, cleaning and maintenance of public toilets. Where the authority acts as an agent of a water company, refer to RA General Guidance 4.3.2.

RA529 Animal and public health; infectious disease control

Animal welfare
Dog control, including the cost of dog wardens
Cesspool emptying
Contributions to rural sewage schemes
Temporary caravan sites
Checking conditions at travellers’ sites
Health education activities, eg: leaflets, exhibitions, etc
Infectious diseases – under the Public Health (Control of Diseases) Act

RA530 Licensing - Alcohol and entertainment licensing; taxi licensing

Gross expenditure, less gross income, relating to the issue of licences where there is no direct link between the payment, and the acquisition by the payer of specific goods and services, including:

Public entertainment, eg: music, dancing, theatres, cinemas
Amusements, eg bingo
Late licences, eg nightclubs
Street trading and shops
Hackney carriages, minicabs and other private hire vehicles
Skips and scaffolding
Hoardings
Felling
Animals
New responsibilities under the Licensing Act 2003 and Gambling Act 2005.
Income from licence fees should be accounted for here.

Record firearms, liquor and explosives licences issued by the police on RA601.
Record petroleum and explosives licences issued by fire authorities on RA602.
Record the registration of births, deaths, and marriages on RA675.
Record licensing of private sector landlords on RA409.

RA531 Community safety (Crime reduction)

Record community safety (Crime reduction) expenditure here that cannot be clearly or properly allocated to any other specific service.

Exclude crime reduction appropriate to the HRA (Housing revenue account).

Fees paid to police forces to secure extra police for a particular area
Providing crime prevention advice

Record levies paid by police authorities to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) and the National Crime Squad (NCS) on RA828.

RA532 Community safety (Safety services)

Include Community Safety (Safety Services) expenditure that cannot be clearly or properly allocated to a specific service. Examples of types of expenditure to include here are:

Lighting in non-highways and non-HRA areas
Provision of safety railings
Providing home safety advice
Community or neighbourhood wardens

RA533 Community safety (CCTV)

Exclude CCTV that can be set against specific services, e.g. CCTV in car parks would be recorded on RA260; security items for schools would be recorded on RA110 to RA150.

CCTV cameras

Group 540 Flood defence, land drainage and coast protection

RA541 Defences against flooding

Revenue expenditure and capital charges on the construction, alteration, improvement, repair, maintenance, demolition and removal of defences
Maintenance and testing of flood warning systems
Provision of advice and information to the public on flooding

Record Environment Agency flood defence levy on RA859.

Drainage works undertaken by local councils for:

Drainage works, including land drainage
Routine maintenance of watercourses including removal of obstructions

Special levies paid to Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs) or to the Environment Agency acting as an IDB.

RA547 Coast protection

Protection of coastal areas against erosion and sea encroachment including:

Revenue expenditure and capital charges on construction, alteration, improvement, repair, maintenance, demolition and removal works
The sowing or planting of vegetation for this purpose

For county council contributions to district councils in respect of coast protection expenditure, refer to RA General Guidance 4.3.2.

RA550 Agricultural and fisheries services

The support of agriculture, including:

The provision and maintenance of farms and smallholdings
Costs of rent collection, less rent income, from farms and smallholdings
Fishery harbours and fisheries at ports

Record animal welfare, pest and dog control on RA529.

RA570 Street cleansing (not chargeable to Highways)

Street cleaning, sweeping and removal of litter and refuse from land, litter bins, etc in public areas (including shopping centres and towpaths) that are required to comply with the Environmental Protection Act
Collection of illegally fly-tipped rubbish
Removal of dead animals
Removal of abandoned vehicles which do not constitute a traffic hazard
Cleansing of foreshores
Graffiti removal

Record any clearance to keep carriageways free of litter or hazards for road safety purposes, under Highways environmental maintenance on RA247.

Group 580 Waste management

Waste collection and disposal activities undertaken in respect of responsibilities under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA). Record waste control and planning on RA591.

RA581 Waste collection

Include all expenditure on the collection of household waste.

Do not include expenditure on the collection of trade waste (included under Trade Waste, RA583 below) or expenditure on the separate collection of recyclable, re-useable or compostable waste (to be included under Recycling, RA584 below).

Household waste collection

Collection of waste from private dwellings and community skips, including garden waste, bulky items, and clinical or hazardous waste. Under Environmental Protection Act, the following types of premises are classed as households:

Residential care home premises
Nursing care home premises
School or other educational establishments

Waste strategy

Include the cost of preparing, monitoring and reviewing the Joint Waste Strategy.

RA582 Waste disposal

Costs of household waste disposal, including landfill, incineration, centralised composting, new technologies, salvaging and processing of recycled waste. Exclude expenditure on the treatment of recyclable waste or compostable waste – these are to be included under Recycling RA584.

Disposal of waste

Costs of waste disposal
Transport of waste to disposal sites
Treatment and disposal of controlled waste collected by Waste Collection Authorities, including expenditure on the Landfill Tax

Transfer stations

Include the costs of operating transfer stations, including transport to disposal sites.

Civic amenity sites

Include the costs of operating civic amenity sites (household recycling centres) including transport costs.

Waste strategy

Include the cost of preparing, monitoring and reviewing the Joint Waste Strategy.

Closed landfill sites

Include cost of restoration and monitoring.

Trading of landfill allowances

Include the costs and income.

Do not include the expenditure on the treatment of recycling, re-usable or compostable waste in either of these services – these are to be included under RA584.

RA583 Trade waste

Collection

Include the costs of collecting refuse from commercial properties. Income earned from this activity should also be included.

Disposal

Expenditure on the disposal of commercial and industrial waste;
Include payments to Waste Disposal Authorities (WDA) for the disposal of trade waste;
Income from Waste Collection Authorities in respect of commercial and industrial waste collected by them and disposed of by the WDA.

RA584 Recycling

Collection

Include all of the costs of collecting items separately (eg doorstep collections or banks), for recycling. Exclude the costs of processing recycled waste except for those which are borne solely by the waste collection authority (WCA) and cannot be attributed to the waste disposal authority (WDA).

Disposal/recovery

Include the costs of processing recyclable or compostable waste and the costs of material sorting (material recovery facilities – MRFs). Include the costs of re-processing, where recyclables are used as secondary raw materials, and composting/organic reprocessing such as windrow composting, in-vessel composting or anaerobic digestion. Include the cost of new recycling technologies. Include the payment of reuse and recycling credits and income from disposal credits or the sale of recyclables. Costs shown here may be direct costs or payments to contractors.

RA585 Waste minimisation

Include the costs of initiatives and actions to encourage the minimisation of waste through the reuse, exchange and shared use of goods. Include the costs of initiatives and actions to prevent/reduce waste through consumer purchasing.

Exclude costs of recycling (RA584 above).
Exclude any process that takes raw waste and following treatment reduces its volume, minimising the quantity of waste going to landfill. These costs are to be included under Waste Disposal (RA582 above).

RA586 Climate change costs

A division of service for costs associated with the Climate Change Act 2008.

Waste Disposal Authorities in London, Greater Manchester and Merseyside (ie those established under the Waste Regulation and Disposal order) should complete RA582; and they should also report income received from the Waste Disposal Authority levy on RA824.

London Boroughs which carry out their own waste disposal should complete RA582; but they should not complete RA824.

Metropolitan Districts in Greater Manchester and Merseyside should not complete RA582; but they should record payment of the Waste Disposal Authority levy on RA824.

Other authorities who operate joint arrangements should complete RA582 in accordance with RA General Guidance 4.3.1, but they should not complete RA824.

Planning and development services

RA591 Building control

The authority’s role in the monitoring and enforcement of building regulations.

Building regulations

Enforcement – of building regulations

Other building control work

Pre-submission advice and administration of legislation relating to dangerous structures; access for disabled people; street naming and numbering
Structural design
Fire safety and energy auditing
Planning condition checks and enforcement

RA592 Development control

The authority’s role in development control under town and country planning legislation.

Advice

Dealing with applications

Advertisements
Applications made under the town and country planning legislation, as specified in SeRCOP
Appeals
Environmental assessments
Conservation and listed buildings, including:
- Applications made under town and country planning legislation
- Buildings preservation orders
- Urgent works and repairs notices, and spot listings
- Listed building and conservation appeals
Tree and forestry regulations

Enforcement

Regulation of other special topics – including minerals and waste control

RA593 Planning policy

Conservation and listed buildings planning policy
- The determination of policy or guidelines for conservation (outside the development plan process)
- The designation of conservation areas and the preparation and implementation of any schemes for their enhancement, including conservation area appraisals
- Building risk assessment and general advice on historic buildings and conservation areas
Regional and sub-regional planning – incl. development and town centre plans
Responses to consultations
Involvement in planning policy matters from other authorities and bodies
Preparation or contribution to the preparation of Sub-regional planning policy
Local development framework – including minerals and waste plans
Supplementary planning guidance
Planning projects and implementation
Trees and forestry policy
Other special planning topics
Sustainable development strategies

RA594 Environmental initiatives

Initiatives for the protection or improvement of the natural environment.

Environmental education
Grants – related to environmental initiatives
Individual environmental projects

For travellers’ sites - see RA460 re accommodation RA523.

RA595 Economic development

Understanding, promoting and supporting the economic well-being of the area.

Market undertakings – Include the costs associated with the:
- Provision of facilities for markets
- Erection and taking down of stalls
- Collection of rents from the market traders.

Exclude the costs of enforcing food hygiene (RA521) and trading standards (RA519).

Training and employment
Government initiatives
Promotion and marketing of the area

RA596 Community development

Initiatives to build community, rather than physical structures. Include community strategy formulation, community development initiatives and projects, social inclusion, promoting e-functionality, neighbourhood resources.

RA597 Economic research

Economic research includes the following:

Need surveys
Collation of information on economic analysis, including census data
Specific investigations into areas where new policy is being developed

RA598 Business support

Business support includes the following:

Premises development

Building and letting of subsidised units for start-up businesses etc
Maintenance and repairs of public furniture in pedestrianised areas where this is not the function of the Highways service (see RA247)
Conference centres
Shopping centres
Other non-service based premises held for future development. Exclude surplus properties awaiting disposal or being held as investment properties
Implementation of development on particular sites in pursuit of a proposal in the development plan, or a departure from it

Grants/loans and guarantees

The handling of financial incentives to persuade firms to set up or expand business in the local area. This includes giving grants, making loans and providing guarantees.

Support and business enterprise – including:

Grants to voluntary organisations that provide support and advise
Careers advise to adults
In-house costs of advisory services provided

Question 6

RA6 Protective and central services

Accepted Answer

Police services

RA601 Police services

Local policing

Neighbourhood policing
Incident (response) management
Special Community liaison
Local command team and support overheads

Dealing with the public

Local call centres/front desk
Central communications unit (including contact management units)
Dealing with the public command team and support overheads

Criminal justice arrangements

Custody
Police doctors, nurses and surgeons
Other custody costs
Criminal justice arrangements
Police National Computer (PNC)
Civil disclosure/Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)
Coroner assistance
Fixed penalty scheme (central ticket office)
Property officer/stores
Criminal justice arrangements command team and support overheads

Road policing

Traffic units
Traffic wardens/police community support officer traffic
Vehicle recovery
Casualty reduction partnership
Road policing command team and support overheads

Operational support

Air operations
Mounted police
Specialist terrain
Dogs section
Advanced public order
Airport and ports policing unit
Firearms unit
Civil contingencies
Operational support team and support overheads

Intelligence

Intelligence command team and support overheads
Intelligence analyst/threat assessments
Intelligence gathering

Investigation

Major investigation unit
Economic crime (including regional asset recovery team)
Specialist investigation units
Serious and organised crime unit
Public protection
Local investigation/prisoner processing
Investigations command team and support overheads

Investigative support

Scenes of crime officers
External forensic costs
Fingerprint/internal forensic costs
Photographic image recovery
Other forensic services
Investigative support command team and support overheads

National policing

Secondments (out of force)
Counter-terrorism/Special Branch
ACPO projects/initiatives
Hosting national services
Other national policing requirements

Police pension top-up grant should not be included in the SG form. The payment by Secretary of State should be shown as income and the transfer into the Police Pension Fund should be shown as expenditure on this line. Where the payment goes the other way the flows are in reverse i.e. the payment to the Secretary of State is expenditure and the transfer from the Police Pension Fund is income. The net effect on this line would be nil.

Record police authorities’ corporate and democratic core costs on RA610.
Record police authorities’ non-distributed costs on RA681 to RA684.
Record levy payments to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) on RA828.
Record police general grant on RA956; and specific police grants on appropriate SG lines.

Fire and Rescue services

RA602 Fire and Rescue services

These services relate to the regular Fire and Rescue Service. Exclude integrated ambulance services.

Where an authority provides fire cover for another authority, refer to General Guidance 4.3.2.

Community safety

Statutory inspection, certification and enforcement
Prevention and education

Fire fighting and rescue operations

Operational responses
Communications and mobilising
Securing water supplies

Fire service emergency planning and civil defence

Production, maintenance and testing of integrated emergency plans to cope with major incidents (natural disasters, industrial accidents, serious transportation crashes, oil or chemical pollution). This includes:

Fire and Rescue Services emergency planning staff and their training
Premises and other assets used by emergency planning staff
The costs of any exercises to test plans
Emergency planning literature and publicity

Record all other emergency planning under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 on RA650.
Record fire authorities’ corporate and democratic core costs on RA610.
Record fire authorities’ non-distributed costs on RA681 to RA684.

Central services

RA604 Coroners’ court services

Coroners’ court services provided by County Councils, Unitary Authorities, Metropolitan District Councils, London Boroughs, the Corporation of London.

The Coroner and his/her deputies
The Coroner’s Office expenses
Premises costs
Inquests
Juries where required
Post-mortems

Record mortuary costs on RA510, but note that the mortuary service may recharge the Coroner’s court for its services, which would then be recorded here.

RA605 Other court services

Maintenance of, less rent income from, Judges’ residences
Maintenance by the Corporation of London of the Mayor’s and City Crown Court and the Central Criminal Court; certain Central Criminal Court employees
Other court-related expenditure, including any residual expenditure related to Magistrates’ Courts (taken over by UCAP from 1 April 2005)

RA610 Corporate and democratic core

Democratic representation and management (DRM)

All councillors’/members’ allowances and expenses, including telephone calls, postage, equipment costs, hospitality, accommodation, training, conference fees etc incurred when undertaking activities on behalf of the authority, as local representatives or to represent local interests
Costs associated with local government reorganisation
Officer time spent on appropriate advice and support activities
Subscriptions to local authority associations and provincial councils

Corporate management

The functions of the individual designated to be the head of the paid service (eg: the chief executive), except those concerned with the direct management of services or provision of advice and support to members
Maintaining statutory registers, eg: of politically sensitive posts, unused land, payments to members and members’ interests
Providing information required by members of the public in the exercise of statutory rights (other than about specific services)
Completing / submitting / publishing all service staffing returns, accounts, annual and public performance reports, Best Value performance plans
Estimating, negotiating, accounting for and allocating corporate level resources, eg: capital finance, supported borrowing, precepts, block grants and taxes
The costs of statutory external audit; and external inspections
The costs of treasury management
Bank charges, other than those which relate to accounts operated on a decentralised basis
The costs associated with supporting a local strategic partnership

Central services to the public

Group 620 Local tax collection

RA623 Council tax discounts locally funded

Locally funded council tax discounts made under section 13A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, which was inserted by section 76 of the Local Government Act 2003. These are not a charge on the Collection Fund.

RA625 Council tax support administration

The gross administration costs of local council tax support schemes.

Authorities administering housing benefit and local council tax support schemes together, should allocate an appropriate estimate of gross expenditure (inclusive of Fraud Incentive Scheme costs) to both this line, and to RA457.

Local council tax support scheme

Since April 2013, authorities have been responsible for delivering localised schemes which provide support with paying council tax bills to those households with low incomes.

RA628 Local tax collection: other

Council tax collection

The gross administration costs of collecting council tax. Also include any costs relating to the collection of past domestic rates and community charge.

Council tax discounts for prompt payment

Discounts given by authorities for prompt payment of council tax, which are not a charge on the Collection Fund.

Non-domestic rates (NDR) collection

The administration costs of collecting NDR, net of the allowance from the Collection Fund.

Do not record losses on rate collection, eg: from bankruptcies, absconders.

Business improvement district (BID) ballots

The administration costs of BID ballots, net of any reimbursements expected from the BID Revenue Account.

RA650 Emergency planning

The provision of integrated emergency planning under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

Civil emergency and disaster planning and support
Maintenance of emergency networks
Conducting of exercises Record expenditure on the production, maintenance and testing of integrated emergency plans by the Fire and Rescue Service on RA602.

RA675 Central services to the public: other

Registration of births, deaths and marriages

Expenditure on the registration of births, deaths and marriages; less income from fees paid by the Registrar General and by members of the public for registrations, certificates and copies.

Elections

Registration of electors

Costs of maintaining the register of electors.

Conducting elections

Costs of conducting local, parish, national and European elections.

Local land charges

Maintenance of the register of local land charges
Dealing with requests for certificates of search and other enquiries
Income from search charges etc

Local welfare assistance schemes

The discretionary social fund (i.e. Community Care Grant and Crisis Loan schemes) that supported vulnerable people was abolished from April 2013 as a result of Welfare Reform Act and replaced with local schemes administered by local authorities.

Include gross expenditure on:

Administration of the local schemes
Local Welfare Provision Grant

Record income from the “Social Fund administrative funding” on SG812 and the “Local Welfare Provision Grant” now included within the RSG (see RA 951).

General grants, bequests and donations

Grants which are not related to any specific functions of the authority and which are given under powers that are not service-specific, eg grants to support Citizens’ Advice
Miscellaneous non-government grants, bequests and donations received by the authority, where no specific service is intended
The payment to parish councils in respect of their Council Tax Support allocation (also see RA1047).

Group 680 Non-distributed costs

Costs and overheads specifically excluded from management and support services, which should not be charged, allocated or apportioned to any other service divisions.

RA681 Retirement benefits

Column 1 figure should include elements of retirement benefits that are not allocated to services. In pre IAS 19 / FRS 17 editions of BVACOP/SeRCOP the following elements of retirement benefits were treated as unapportionable central overheads:

the whole amount of any past service contribution to meet a pension fund deficit, however arising
the amount of any reduction in contribution to apply a pension fund surplus
charges (however calculated) for added years and early retirement

RA682 Costs of unused shares of IT facilities and other assets

The costs of unused shares of IT (information technology) facilities

The costs of shares of other long-term unused but unrealisable assets

Exclude: Non-distributed costs – depreciation / impairment of surplus costs etc

The total of the following three items falls under capital items hence should be exclude:

Impairment losses relating to assets under construction
Impairment losses on non-current assets held for sale and other surplus assets held for disposal (other than investment properties)
Depreciation on surplus assets held for disposal but not classified as held for sale

RA684 Non-distributed costs - revenue expenditure on surplus assets

The revenue expenditure involved in holding surplus assets (e.g. security costs).

Other services

RA698 Other services

SeRCOP Section 3: Service Expenditure Analysis provides an extensive list of services. Every SeRCOP service division and sub-division has been covered on the RA form and detailed throughout these Guidance Notes. The intention of SeRCOP is that all services should be included and all items should be attributed to specific services, in accordance with CIPFA guidelines.

In exceptional circumstances where authorities cannot identify appropriate services to allocate or apportion items (including unallocated contingencies), such items should be included here, and a brief breakdown of items and amounts should be entered on the separate Memo page of the form. Exclude Public Health.

Exclusions

Abandoned vehicles - record on RA247 or RA570, as appropriate.
Animal welfare - record on RA529.
CCTV cameras - record on RA258, RA533,or appropriate service lines.
Christmas lighting - record on RA249.
Community or neighbourhood wardens - record on RA532.
Crime reduction and prevention advice - record on RA531.
Dog control - record on RA529.
External inspections - record on RA610.
Grants to voluntary organisations – record service specific grants on appropriate service lines; if not service specific - record on RA675.
Gypsy/travellers’ sites - see RA460 re accommodation.
Information provision - record on RA610 if general, or apportion to all appropriate services.
Licensing - record on RA530.
Lighting of non-highways and non-HRA areas - record on RA532.
Local government reorganisation costs – record on RA610; record transfers of funds between reorganised authorities on RA906.
Registers of unused land - record on RA610.
Shopping centres and commercial units - record on RA598.
Single Regeneration Budget - record on RA595.
Statutory External Audit - record on RA610.
Supporting People - record on RA475 and appropriate Children and Adult Social Care RA310 to RA360.
Youth Offender Teams - record on RA323.

Management and support services

Central management, administrative and support services expenditure must either be allocated directly, or apportioned and recharged to all appropriate service lines above, in accordance with SeRCOP Section 2.

This includes the following costs (except where more specifically defined under RA610):

E-Government
Financial services
Human resources, management and training
Internal Audit
Information Technology and communications equipment / maintenance
Legal services
Office accommodation and storage
Press costs
Procurement services
Property construction and estate management
Public relations
Staff transport and catering services

Question 7

Service expenditure

Accepted Answer

This automatic calculation equals the sum of RA190, RA290, RA330, RA360, RA390, RA490, RA509, RA590, RA599, RA601, RA602, RA690, and RA698. It comprises all direct revenue payments and income from services for which the authority alone is responsible, as opposed to transfers to and from, or expenditure on behalf of, other accounts, funds, authorities or miscellaneous bodies.

Question 8

Net current expenditure

Accepted Answer

Other operating income and expenditure

Group 810 Housing benefits and transfers between HRA and GFRA

Note that SeRCOP treats the following lines as Service Expenditure.

Record all discretionary payments of rent allowances and rebates on RA456.

Record all housing benefits administration costs on RA457.

RA811 Rent allowances – mandatory payments

Mandatory rent allowances paid to the tenants of private landlords and registered social landlords.

Record income from mandatory rent allowances subsidy on SG745.

RA812 Non-HRA rent rebates – mandatory payments

Mandatory rent rebates paid to local authority tenants living in non-HRA dwellings.

Record income from mandatory non-HRA rent rebates subsidy on SG746.

(Housing Benefits relating to Homelessness should be recharged to RA440 as “other income”.)

RA813 Rent rebates to HRA tenants – mandatory payments

Mandatory rent rebates paid to local authority tenants living in HRA dwellings.

Record income from mandatory HRA rent rebates subsidy on SG747.

RA814 Subsidy limitation transfers from HRA

Transfers from the HRA to the GFRA resulting from the operation of Rent Rebate Subsidy Limitation.

RA818 Contribution to the HRA re items shared by the whole community

Contributions made to the HRA where amenities in the HRA benefit the wider community, which may include:

Play and other recreational areas
Grassed areas
Gardens
Community centres
Play schemes

Also include any other GFRA contributions to/from the HRA.

Record HRA interest receipts and payments on RA883.

Exclude prior year adjustments from transfers between HRA and GFRA: record these on RA1020.

Group 820 Precepts and levies

RA821 Parish precepts

These should be recorded by Billing Authorities only, and comprise the aggregate amounts of any precepts from local precepting authorities, issued to or anticipated by the Billing Authority, which were taken into account in calculating its Council Tax Requirement. Include amounts under the Local Government Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) (England) Order 1993 and amounts under the Local Government Finance (New Parishes) Regulation 1998 and 2008. This line must agree with CTR1 line 2, column 2.

RA822 Integrated Transport Authority (ITA) levy

Metropolitan districts should record levy payments to (+) ITAs; ITAs should record such levies received as income (-).

RA824 Waste Disposal Authority (WDA) levy

Authorities in London, Greater Manchester and Merseyside should record levy payments to (+) WDAs in respect of waste disposal functions in those areas established under the Waste Regulation and Disposal (Authorities) Order; WDAs should record such levies received as income (-).

Record payments to / receipts by Waste Disposal Authorities (WDA) for the disposal of trade waste on RA583.

RA827 London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) levy

London boroughs and the Corporation of London should record levy paid in respect of compensation payment liabilities inherited following the abolition of the Greater London Council (GLC) and the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). The LPFA is a body corporate, accountable to the Mayor of London, to maintain the superannuation fund which was originally the responsibility of the GLC.

RA828 Other levies

Levies paid by police and crime commissioners to other bodies
National Parks and Broads Authority levies
Garden levies
Apprenticeship Levy
Levies made by Residuary Bodies

Record Port Health levies on RA526.
Record Internal Drainage Board levies on RA544.
Record Environment Agency flood defence levy on RA859.

Group 830 Trading account surpluses and deficits

Refer to SeRCOP for the full definition of the different types of trading operations to include. Authorities should include surpluses and deficits (net of capital charges) from their own trading accounts, plus those arising from joint undertakings for which the authority is the account holder.

Any surplus/deficit on a trading account in respect of a joint undertaking for which the authority is not the account holder, should be recorded only on adjustments RA848.

Completely exclude public corporations funded mainly by sales outside the local authority.

Record CERA (capital expenditure charged to revenue account) only on RA865; and record interest receipts only on RA886 (thus exclude interest and CERA from net surpluses/deficits).

Also see related guidance regarding the recording of capital items on RA841 to RA842; and appropriations to/from reserves of net surpluses/deficits on RA911 to RA916.

RA831 External Trading Accounts net surplus/deficit

Record the overall net surplus to (-) or net deficit from (+) the GFRA, arising from external trading accounts including undertakings with the public or other third parties; and External Trading Organisations which have won contracts from other public bodies.

RA832 Internal Trading Accounts net surplus/deficit

Record the overall net surplus to (-) or net deficit from (+) the GFRA, arising from internal trading accounts including Direct Labour Organisations (DLOs) and Direct Service Organisations (DSOs); Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) arrangements; work carried out by Internal Trading Organisations arising from Voluntary Competitive Tendering (VCT) exercises; and support services provided in a free or limited internal market.

RA841 Capital items accounted for in External Trading Accounts

Record as income (negative) the total capital items (depreciation, loss on impairment of assets, revaluations taken to surplus or deficit on the provision of services, credits for capital grants and Revenue Expenditure funded from Capital by Statute (RECS)) that were netted off the External Trading Services net surplus/deficit in RA831. This negative entry effectively removes the capital items element from External Trading Accounts.

RA842 Capital items accounted for in Internal Trading Accounts

Record as income (negative) the total capital items (depreciation, loss on impairment of assets, revaluations taken to surplus or deficit on the provision of services, credits for capital grants and Revenue Expenditure funded from Capital by Statute (RECS)) that were netted off the Internal Trading Services net surplus/deficit in RA832. This negative entry effectively removes the capital items element from External Trading Accounts.

RA847 Appropriations to(+) / from(-) Accumulated Absences Account

Short-term accumulated compensated absences refers to benefits that employees receive as part of their contract of employment, entitlement to which is built up as they provide services to the council. The most significant benefit covered by this heading is holiday pay, where employees build up an entitlement to paid holidays as they work. Under the Code, the cost of providing holidays and similar benefits is required to be recognised when employees render services that increase their entitlement to future compensated absences.

The Accumulated Absences Account absorbs the differences that would otherwise arise on the General Fund Balance from accruing for compensated absences earned but not taken in the year, e.g. annual leave entitlement carried forward at 31 March. Regulation 30H of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003 No 3146, as amended by SI 2010 No 454) requires that the impact on the General Fund Balance is neutralised in this way.

The appropriations to/from the account should be entered in this line.

RA848 Adjustments to net current expenditure

Agency arrangements for government departments and health authorities or trusts, as defined in RA General Guidance 4.1 and 4.2.1
Town Development – transactions between authorities under the Housing, Rent and Subsidies Act; transitional town redevelopment subsidy and other overspill
Any surplus or deficit on a Trading Account in respect of a joint undertaking for which the authority is not the account holder
Irrecoverable input VAT on revenue services: record only that included within the budget

Exclude irrecoverable VAT directly attributable to the supply of VAT-exempt revenue services – include this on relevant service lines above.

Record prior year adjustments on RA1020.

RA849 Net current expenditure

This automatic calculation is the sum of RA799 to RA848. It comprises Total Service Expenditure plus other items of current expenditure and income within the GFRA.

Question 9

Revenue expenditure

Accepted Answer

RA859 Levy: Environment Agency flood defence

Levies demanded by the Environment Agency (EA) as successor to the National Rivers Authority, in accordance with the National Rivers Authority (Levies) Regulations.

Record levy payments to the EA acting as an Internal Drainage Board on RA544.

Group 860 Capital charges and expenditure

RA865 Capital expenditure charged to the GF Revenue Account (CERA) (exclude public health)

Capital expenditure met from the GFRA, including Trading Accounts; or from revenue reserves (for which there should be a corresponding entry in RA911, RA915 or RA916). Record expenditure only in respect of the year in which it was incurred, not when it is put into reserves in anticipation of future years’ capital expenditure (that should be recorded as an appropriation to reserves on RA911, RA915 or RA916).

RA866 Capital expenditure charged to the GF Revenue Account (CERA) - Public health

Capital expenditure met from the GFRA, or from revenue reserves (for which there should be a corresponding entry in RA914). Record expenditure only in respect of the year in which it was incurred, not when it is put into reserves in anticipation of future years’ capital expenditure (that should be recorded as an appropriation to reserves on RA914).

There are restrictions on the type of Capital the Public Health grant can be used for i.e. it can only be used on capital spend that does not involve borrowing or a finance lease. Planned capital expenditure should be noted here as a separate public health CERA.

The total of RA865 and RA866 CERA minus contributions from private developer and leaseholders etc (CER table Fin1, line/row 3) that have passed through the revenue account should equal to the Capital Estimate Returns (CER) 2024-25, Section Fin1, line 10 (new row 15).

RA867 Capital receipts used to finance revenue expenditure under receipts flexibility

Include capital receipts used to finance revenue expenditure. The 2015 Spending Review gave local authorities the right to use capital receipts on the revenue costs of reform projects and improving service delivery.

See detailed guidance on the types of projects that qualify for this.

If your plans change during the financial year, and the local authority chooses to utilise the flexibility of capital receipts they need to inform DLUHC of these changes as soon as possible, by emailing: capitalreceiptsflexibility@levellingup.gov.uk.

This should be equivalent to the Capital Estimate Returns (CER) 2024-25, Section D Memorandum Item line M1 “Flexible use of capital receipts”.

RA868 Netting off expenditure capitalised by a direction under Section 16(2)b)

Where expenditure financed by a direction under section 16(2)b) of the Local Government Act 2003 has been included in lines prior to Line 749 Net Current Expenditure, please put the total of such amounts here, so that it is netted off in the calculation of Revenue Expenditure.

N.B. There is a capital items memorandum section at the foot the RO and RA (budget) returns. This includes an item ‘Revenue Expenditure Financed by Capital Under Statute’ (REFCUS, also known as RECS), of which expenditure capitalised under a section 16(2)b) direction is one constituent component.

RA871 Provision for bad debts

Provision made for bad debts charged to the GFRA.

RA873 Provision for repayment of principal

Any charge made to the GFRA in respect of past years’ capital expenditure under regulation 27 of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003.

Include both the minimum revenue provision calculated in accordance with regulation 28, and any additional voluntary provision.

Any charge to GFRA for the current year’s capital expenditure should be included in RA865.

Exclude any element that relates to a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme – see RA888.

RA876 Leasing payments

The financing element of finance leasing charges should be included here.

Any MRP generated by a finance lease will be part of the general MRP calculation and so included in RA873 along with any additional voluntary provision.

Charges against operating leases will be included under the relevant service heading.

Group 880 Interest and investment income

RA881 Interest: external payments

The treatment in the accounts, in terms of amounts relating to particular years, should follow the appropriate CIPFA guidance.

Interest payable by the authority on all external borrowings, including external interest payments in respect of the HRA and Trading Accounts
Local authority superannuation funds and trust funds
Interest on all deferred purchase schemes entered into before 7/07/1988
Interest on deferred purchase schemes entered into between 8/07/1988 and 31/03/1990 falling within Regulation 8 of the Local Government (Prescribed Expenditure) (Consolidation and Amendment), which are not transitional credit arrangements
Interest paid by the LA on external borrowing re Housing Act Advances
Gains (discounts) or losses (premiums) arising on the repurchase or early settlement of debt: treat as expenditure or a negative offset
impairment losses arising on financial instruments

Exclude any element that relates to a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme – see RA888.

RA883 Interest: HRA item 8 payments and receipts

Calculate interest in accordance with the formula in the HRA General Determination of the Item 8 Credit and Item 8 Debit. Enter a net figure, being total interest receipts credited to the HRA under Item 8 Part I, less charges made to the HRA under Item 8 Part II. Where receipts credited to the HRA are higher than charges made to the HRA, record as expenditure (+), otherwise record as income (-).

RA886 Interest and investment income: external receipts and dividends

All external interest receipts and dividends, including those on Housing Act Advances from mortgagors.

Exclude interest receipts from internal lending, which should not be recorded on the RA form.

RA920 Income from Treasury Management activities

Income recognised for the financial year under proper accounting practices for investments that meet the definition of treasury management, as specified in CIPFA’s Treasury Management in the Public Services Code of Practice. Income recorded in this category should NOT include income from investments that score as capital spend under the Prudential Framework.

RA921 Income from non-Treasury Management activities (GF only, exc. HRA)

All investment income that is not Treasury Management income.

RA922 Investment properties

Net income from investment properties owned directly by the authority. Investment properties has the same meaning as defined under IAS 40 interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. For this line, include only those investment properties which are not recorded in the Trading Account Services Return (TSR). Recording of investment property data in the TSR remains unchanged.

RA923 Dividends from subsidiaries

Dividend income has the same meaning as dividend income recognised in the statement of accounts under proper accounting practices. Dividend income recorded here should be income received from equity investments in the authority’s subsidiaries. Subsidiaries as defined in IAS 27 and interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting.

RA924 Dividends from equity other than subsidiaries

Dividend income has the same meaning as dividend income recognised in the statement of accounts under proper accounting practices. Dividend income recorded here should be for all other equity investments other than those in the authority’s subsidiaries. Income from pooled equity investments that are part of Treasury Management (and which do not score as capital expenditure) must be excluded from this line and recorded in ‘Income from Treasury Management’.

RA925 Income from joint ventures

Income recognised for the financial year under proper accounting practices from joint venture arrangements that has not been recorded in equity or loan interest. Joint venture has the same meaning as set out under IAS 28 and interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting.

RA926 Interest from capital loans

Interest income has the same meaning as interest income recognised in the statement of accounts in accordance with IFRS 9 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. This should include only those loans that score as capital expenditure in accordance with the Prudential Framework. Include all such loans including those to subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures.

RA927 Interest from revenue loans

Interest income has the same meaning as interest income recognised in the statement of accounts in accordance with IFRS 9 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. This should include only those loans that do not score as capital expenditure in accordance with the Prudential Framework. Include all such loans including those to subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures.

RA928 Income from bonds

Interest income as recognised in the statement of accounts under proper accounting practices. Income should be recorded here from investments in bonds that are not part of Treasury Management practices.

RA929 Other income from non-Treasury Management activities

To record investment income which does not fall into any of the above categories. LAs are asked to provide commentary on the nature of the investment/s for any value recorded here.

RA888 Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes - difference from service charge

It is expected that most authorities will be following the DLUHC MRP guidance and making an MRP charge equal to the element of the service charge that goes to reduce the balance sheet liability for the project. Where exceptionally this is not so authorities should ensure that the entry for the project in the service expenditure equals the service charge, and enter the difference between the service charge and the total charge to the revenue account for the scheme on this line.

RA889 Appropriations to / from financial instruments adjustment account

Regulations 30B to 30F of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003 No 3146, as amended by SI 2007 No 573 and SI 2008 No 414) allow authorities to offset some of the financial consequences of the new accounting treatment for financial instruments.

Where authorities take advantage of these regulations the Accounting Code requires the entries in the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Account to comply with the relevant Financial Reporting Standards, and the adjustments permitted by the regulations to be implemented by appropriations to or from the financial instruments adjustment account in the Movement in Reserves Statement. The appropriations should be entered in this line.

RA890 Appropriations to / from unequal pay back pay account

Regulation 30A of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003 No 3146, as amended by SI 2007 No 573 and SI 2010 No 454) allows authorities to defer the impact on the revenue account of certain provisions made for unequal pay back pay. The Accounting Code provides for this deferral to be achieved by appropriations to and from an unequal pay back pay account. The appropriations should be entered in this line.

RA891 Specific and special grants outside AEF

This line is completed automatically from SG799.

RA893 Business Rates Supplement (GLA only)

Record any income (-) which relates to Business Rates Supplement applied to specific projects expected to promote economic development. This includes income from levying a local supplement on the business rate and using the proceeds for investment in the local area.

Accounting for Business Rates Supplement should follow the principal and agent relationship as in the case of Council Tax.

The amount recorded on this line should only be the element of income that relates to your authority. For example, if you are a billing authority, regardless of the total amount collected the income recorded should be the amount that relates to your authority only. If you are precepting authority, then the income collected by your respective billing authority on behalf of your authority should be reported on your form.

RA894 Community Infrastructure levy

Record any income (-) which relates to Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) to be spent on infrastructure to support development in the area. The Community Infrastructure Levy is a new levy that local authorities can choose to charge on new developments in their area. The money can be used to support development by funding infrastructure that the local authority, community and neighbourhoods want.

Accounting for CIL should follow the principal and agent relationship as in the case of Council Tax.

The figures on in this cell should only record the gross income figures for CIL. Gross expenditure figures should be recorded within CERA (RA865 or 866) or across the relevant service lines.

RA895 Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) transactions (expenditure)

The SeRCOP recommends that the cost of CRC allowances is charged (apportioned) to services in accordance with the method of apportionment used to allocate other energy cost charges, as part of premises costs.

However, despite this recommendation local authorities should record CRC transactions (expenditure) separately on this line.

RA896 Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) transactions (Income)

The SeRCOP recommends that the cost of CRC allowances is charged (apportioned) to services in accordance with the method of apportionment used to allocate other energy cost charges, as part of premises costs.

However, despite this recommendation local authorities should record CRC transactions (income) separately on this line.

RA897 Appropriations to(+)/from(-) dedicated schools grant adjustment account

See paragraphs 52-64 of CIPFA’s Bulletin 09 year end closure 2020-21.

RA900 Revenue expenditure

This automatic calculation is the sum of RA885 to RA896.

Question 10

Financing of revenue expenditure

Accepted Answer

The revenue expenditure and council tax requirements

RA904 Specific and special grants inside AEF

This line is completed automatically from SG699.

RA906 Inter-authority transfers in respect of reorganisation

Transfer of funds between authorities in respect of boundary changes and other forms of reorganisation. Record local government reorganisation costs on RA610.

Group 910 Appropriations to / from financial reserves

Record additions to(+) and withdrawals(-) from dedicated schools grant reserves.

RA911 Appropriations to / from schools’ reserves

RA913 Appropriations to / from Dedicated schools grant reserves

See guidance for RA1012 and RA1013, and complete RA913 in accordance with these and in conjunction with RA897.

RA914 Appropriations to / from public health financial reserves

There is no fixed limit on how much can be carried over to the next financial year, however, where there are large repeated underspends the Department of Health may decide to reduce allocations in future years. Any part of the grant left at the end of the financial year will need to be kept in a, separate, public health reserve (RA1014).

This is a ring-fenced grant so any underspends at the end of a financial year still have to be used for public health, and in line with the conditions on the grant, when they are subsequently used.

RA915 Appropriations to / from other earmarked financial reserves

RA916 Appropriations to / from unallocated financial reserves

Record additions to reserves as expenditure (+) from the GFRA.
Record withdrawals from reserves as income (-) to the GFRA.

Trading account balances are counted as appropriations to reserves (for surpluses) or from reserves (for deficits), thus opposite entries amounting to the same surpluses/ deficits recorded above on RA831 and RA832, must be included within RA911 to RA916 (broken down as appropriate), that is:

a negative (surplus) entry above should be added to the reserves figure
a positive (deficit) entry above should be subtracted from the reserves figure

Record as a withdrawal: the amount spent in cases where internal reserves are spent on capital items, without the use of a credit approval (also record on RA865).

Money set aside for provisions should be recorded on the appropriate RA service line when it is set aside. Prior year adjustments to reserves should be recorded on RA1020.

Lines RA920-929

Guidance is listed above under line 886.

RA951 Revenue Support Grant

Revenue Support Grant, and any additional grant (in accordance with section 85 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988), payable to the GFRA.

This figure is prepopulated and should agree with the Local Government Finance Settlement 2024-25 figures.

RA956 Police Grant

The Home Secretary’s determination for 2024-25, made under section 46(2) of the 1996 Act, of the aggregate amount of grants for police purposes that is paid to each local policing body.

The aggregate amount of grants for police purpose comprises the Home Office Police Core Settlement, Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) Formula Funding, and Legacy Council Tax Grants.

Legacy Council Tax Grants comprises Council Tax Freeze Grant from the 2011-12, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 schemes, payable to local policing bodies (formerly police authorities) in England who chose to freeze or lower precept in those years and the Local Council Tax Support Grant which was paid to local policing bodies in England in 2013-14 following the localisation of council tax support schemes.

For GLA: It also includes the Special Payment to the Greater London Authority on behalf of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime in recognition of the Metropolitan Police’s distinct national, international and capital city functions.

City of London police precept grant

This figure is prepopulated and should agree with the Home Office Police Grant Report (England and Wales) 2024-25.

Other police specific grants should be recorded on form SG.

RA970 Retained income from Rate Retention Scheme

The figure in this line should reflect the authority’s income from the business rates retention scheme in 2024-25, including tariff/top-up payments and Section 31 compensation grants for the cost of changes to the business rates system.

A Business Rates calculator is to be provided to help with this calculation. However, please note that some data are not yet available e.g. Tariff/top-up compensation, safety net and levy figures. These are calculated separately and will need to be picked up from the forthcoming 2024-25 NNDR1 payment report and safety net and levy calculator.

The figure in this line should consist of the following lines:

The cost of collection allowance should not be included within this line. This income should be netted off the non-domestic rates (NDR) collection amount within line RA 628.

The final figure should account for transfers of income due to pooling arrangements and money passed directly to a Local Enterprise Partnership and not retained by the local authority.

See non-domestic rates collected as part of the NNDR1 form for 2024-25.

RA980 Collection fund surpluses and deficits for council tax

Amounts in respect of Council Tax Collection Fund surpluses / deficits for 2024-25, transferable from / to the Collection Fund in 2024-25.

RA985 Other items

RA990 Council tax requirement

This should be the sum of RA900 to RA985 and must agree with the Council Tax Requirement data given on the CTR forms:

CTR1 line 1 for billing authorities
CTR3 line 1 (column 3) for the Greater London Authority
CTR4 line 1 for the Greater Manchester Authority and West Yorkshire Combined Authority
CTR2 line 1 for all other precepting authorities

This figure should be zero for the following authorities:

Parks and Broads Authorities
Integrated Transport Authorities
Waste Disposal Authorities

Question 11

Specific and special grants

Accepted Answer

Grants within AEF (Aggregate External Finance)

SG102 Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) - DfE

Grant paid under Section 14 of the Education Act 2002 to local authorities in support of Schools Budgets. The figure should be consistent with that entered on the local authority’s Section 251 budget statement, but must be shown net of expected academy recoupment. See the terms and conditions of the DSG and a technical guidance document.

SG103 Pupil Premium Grant - DfE

The Pupil Premium is provided to help raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap with their peers, and to support children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces. It is available to pupils who are currently eligible for Free School Meals or have been in any of the previous 6 years, children looked after for over 6 months, children adopted from care, and service children.

See more information on the pupil premium.

SG107 Universal Infants Free School Meals - DfE

The universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) grant enables schools to provide free school meals to all pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.

See the Education & Skills Funding Agency latest funding.

SG313 Public Health Grant - DHSC

The public health grant is being provided to give local authorities the funding needed to discharge their new public heath responsibilities. The funds are to be used to:

improve the health of local populations
carry out health protection functions delegated from the Secretary of State
reduce health inequalities across the life course, including within hard to reach groups
ensure the provision of population healthcare advice

The grant will be made to upper-tier and unitary local authorities in England and paid in quarterly instalments. Expenditure from the grant should comply with the Conditions that have been placed on how it can be used.

If your authority is in receipt of this grant; a validation test in the form will flag if the sum of your authority’s budgeted public health spend, reserves transfers and public health capital expenditure from the revenue account are less than their grant allocation. Allocations had been yet to be announced at the time when the form was prepared.

SG317 Rural Services Delivery Grant - DLUHC

The allocations have been pre-populated from the Final Settlement 2024‑25 Core Spending Power Supporting Information table.

SG323 Improved Better Care Fund - DLUHC

See the Social care resources explanatory note for information on these grants.

The allocations have been pre-populated from the Final Settlement 2024‑25 Core Spending Power Supporting Information table.

SG338 Services Grant - DLUHC

This is intended to provide funding to all tiers of local government in recognition of the vital services delivered at every level of local government.

The allocations have been pre-populated from the Final Settlement 2024‑25 Core Spending Power Supporting Information table.

SG342 Funding guarantee - DLUHC

This new guarantee will ensure that all councils will see at least a 3% increase in their core spending power before any decisions about organisational efficiencies, use of reserves or council tax levels.

The allocations have been pre-populated from the Final Settlement 2024‑25 Core Spending Power Supporting Information table.

SG401 Homelessness Prevention Grant - DLUHC

This grant totals £331.3 million for 2024-25 and includes an additional £14.2 million to cover the cost of new burdens associated with the expansion of priority need to those forced into homelessness by domestic abuse, following the landmark Domestic Abuse Act 2021.

See the Homelessness Prevention Grant Funding allocations.

SG406 Housing Benefit Subsidy Admin Grant - DWP

This includes grants toward the costs of administering the Housing Benefit schemes, including the additional amounts provided solely for the purpose of assisting LAs in their statutory duties to administer and process Housing Benefit claims and directly related enquiries during the economic downturn.

SG540 New Homes Bonus - DLUHC

The New Homes Bonus is a grant paid by central government to local councils to reflect and incentivise housing growth in their areas. It is based on the amount of extra Council Tax revenue raised for new-build homes, conversions and long-term empty homes brought back into use. There is also an extra payment for providing affordable homes.

See New Homes Bonus final allocations 2024 to 2025.

SG545 The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) - DLUHC

Record the support given for the revenue expenditure which is incurred in meeting payments to contractors for the capital element of new projects undertaken through the PFI.

SG698 Other Grants within AEF

Specific Grants inside AEF - These are revenue grants which are paid to local authorities by individual government departments, for which the local authority has sole responsibility for decisions on how the grant is allocated. The main purpose for the provision of these grants is to deliver core local authority services.

Record any grant within AEF for which there is no specific line in the SG form on Memorandum Box A.

Grants outside AEF (Aggregate External Finance)

SG715 Adult Education budget grant from Education and Skills Funding Agency

SG716 Sixth Form Funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)

Grants made by the ESFA to fund places for 16-19 year olds in maintained school sixth forms. See the latest 16 to 19 funding: information for 2024 to 2025 guidance.

SG745 Mandatory Rent Allowances: subsidy

Record the subsidies received towards the cost of those tenants living in private rented accommodation who qualify for a rent allowance covering the whole or part of their rent (depending on their financial circumstances).

SG746 Mandatory Rent Rebates outside HRA: subsidy

Record the Subsidies received towards the cost of Rent Rebates paid for accommodation which is not covered by part VI of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. This will include (amongst others) such accommodation as used for homeless people in board and lodging, accommodation held on a licence agreement by an authority, accommodation held on a lease of no more than 10 years, and local authority owned hostels and caravan sites.

SG747 Rent Rebates Granted to HRA Tenants: subsidy

Record the subsidies received towards the cost of those tenants living in HRA accommodation who qualify for a rent rebates covering the whole or part of their rent (depending on their financial circumstances).

SG798 Other grants outside AEF

Specific Grants outside AEF - These are revenue grants, which are paid to local authorities by individual government departments. However, the local authority usually only acts as the ‘middle person’, as the grants are passed over to a third party who administers the service. The local authority does not normally have any control over the service for which the grant was intended for. This responsibility rests solely with the third party that receives the grant.

Record any grant outside AEF for which there is no specific line on the SG form in Memorandum Box B including:

Items to exclude from the Specific and Special Revenue Grants form

Question 12

Reserves levels

Accepted Answer

Financial reserves

RA1011 to RA1016 General Fund Revenue Reserves at start and end of financial year

All revenue reserves of the authority, including former special and capital funds; earmarked reserves; reserves Trading Accounts. Record any surplus as (+) and any deficit as (-). Reserves levels at start of year should reflect the position:

before any appropriations to / from other authorities
before any transfers to / from other authorities (other than transfers which are a result of a reorganisation of authorities, as a consequence of the Local Government Act 1992)
before any transfers to schools opting out

Exclude: pension fund reserves; HRA balances; provisions; amounts set aside to meet credit liabilities; unused capital receipts; unapplied capital grants and other balances legally restricted to use for capital purposes; Collection Fund balances (of billing authorities).

RA1011 Schools’ financial reserves at 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Record those balances which a scheme, made under s.48 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, provides must be carried forward to be used for the purpose of schools. These amounts represent the amount of unspent schools’ budgets. Levels at year end are calculated by adding the appropriations in the year to the start of year levels.

RA1012 Dedicated Schools Grant Adjustment Account level at 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Government announced in the Local government finance policy statement 2023-24 to 2024-25 that it will be extending the Statutory Override for the Dedicated Schools Grant for the next 3 years from 2023-24 to 2025-26. This was confirmed in the Local government finance policy statement 2024 to 2025.

Paragraphs 14.1-14.4 of CIPFA Bulletin 10: Closure of the 2021/22 financial statements and paragraphs 52-64 of CIPFA’s Bulletin 09 year end closure 2020-21 refer.

RA1013 Estimated dedicated schools grant reserves at 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Figures submitted for RA1012 & RA1013 should be consistent with the data provided to the Department for Education in their Section 251 returns.

RA1014 Estimated public health financial reserves at 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

There is no fixed limit on how much can be carried over to the next financial year, however, where there are large repeated underspends the Department of Health may decide to reduce allocations in future years.

This is a ring-fenced grant so any future spends from these reserves still have to be used for public health, and in line with the conditions on the grant, when they are subsequently used.

RA1015 Other Earmarked Financial Reserves at 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Record only amounts contributed from the GFRA. Levels at 31 March 2025 are calculated by adding the appropriations in the year to the start of year levels.

Exclude any unapplied capital receipts which may also be held in these funds.

Sub-categories of 1015 Other earmarked reserves

The information recorded here can help the department distinguish between which of the Other Earmarked reserves are simply held for insurance and managing mismatches between funding and expenditure and which are not readily available and generally held on behalf of another organisation.

This will be used to help clarify the interpretation of these figures by the Department and users of these statistics

Please note: The values in these sub-categories must be consistent with the figures recorded in RA1015.

RA1021 Other Earmarked Financial Reserves used for smoothing PFI and long-term liability payments at 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Record here your estimate of any Other Earmarked reserves that are used to smooth or equalise the payments due under Public Finance Initiative or other long-term liabilities.

RA1022 Other Earmarked Financial Reserves held on behalf of third parties for specific projects at 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Record here your estimate of any Other Earmarked reserves which are held on behalf of organisations which have no legal liability to record reserves.

RA1023 Other Earmarked Financial Reserves: Contractual commitments at 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Record any contractual commitments such as PFI schemes, contracts for construction, or refurbishment.

RA1024 Other Earmarked Financial Reserves: Planned future revenue and capital spending at 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Record any reserves held for planned future revenue spending. “Planned” may permissibly refer to timeframes beyond a year and should refer to future spend that is referenced in budgets or financial strategies. A formal commitment such as a business case is not a requirement to meet the criteria of “planned”. Also include planned capital spending financed by revenue reserves. Do not include unapplied capital grants or capital receipts.

RA1025 Other Earmarked Financial Reserves: Specific risks at 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Only include reserves held for specific risks that can/could be named here. Reserves held for general contingency or to stabilise budget against a reduction in funding should be reported either in unallocated reserves or in earmarked reserves: budget stabilisation

RA1026 Other Earmarked Financial Reserves: Budget stabilisation at 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Record any earmarked reserves held to stabilise budget against a reduction in funding or pressures and risks inherent to the budget. These may include funds set aside to manage estimates within the budget, to level out payments over time, or address other non-controllable changes in the budget position specifically. Do not include any reserves held in unallocated reserves.

RA1027 Other Earmarked Financial Reserves: Other at 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Record any other earmarked reserves.

RA1016 Unallocated Financial Reserves at 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Those revenue reserves which have not been earmarked or ringfenced, and are available for unforeseen events

RA1020 Prior Year Adjustments

This line is only for prior year adjustments, and must be distinguished from adjustments RA848.

Question 13

Memorandum items

Accepted Answer

Capital items

Include capital items on the GFRA, but not on internal and external Trading Services.

RA1031 Depreciation

The measure of the cost or revalued amount of the benefits of fixed assets consumed during the year of account.

RA1033 Loss on Impairment of assets

Downward shifts in the value of assets due to permanent consumption of economic benefits (e.g. major structural damage or technological obsolescence)

RA1034 Revaluations taken to surplus or deficit on the provision of services

Amounts for revaluations that are taken to the Consolidated Income and Expenditure Account (Surplus or Deficit on the Provision of Services). There can be gains as well as losses that are taken to this part of the C I & E Account.

RA1035 Credit for capital grants

Include any grant or contribution towards capital expenditure recognised as income in the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement. In the authority’s statement of accounts these are amounts that will be transferred to the Capital Adjustment Account in the Movement in Reserves Statement.

RA1036 Revenue expenditure funded from capital by statute

Expenditure which is classified as total amount of RECS included in the capital charges column for each of the services lines and Trading Accounts.

RA1039 Total capital items

This automatic calculation equals the sum of RA1031 to RA1036.

Local council tax support scheme

Please note: This section should be completed by billing authorities only.

The questions that ask about ‘council tax foregone’ should be completed on an area basis; they should include council tax foregone due to council tax support in the billing authority and all precepting authorities (i.e. police, fire, county, parish etc.) within their area.

It’s worth noting that your council tax team may be better placed to provide some of the information required in this section.

In RA1044 – RA1047, the definition of a pensioner is as set out in regulations 3 of the Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2012 (SI: 2012 / 2885).

A person is a “pensioner” if—
(i) he has attained the qualifying age for state pension credit; and
(ii) he is not, or, if he has a partner, his partner is not—
(aa) a person on income support, on an income-based jobseeker’s allowance or on an income-related employment and support allowance; or
(bb) a person with an award of universal credit; and

A working age person is a “person who is not a pensioner” if—
(i) he has not attained the qualifying age for state pension credit; or
(ii) he has attained the qualifying age for state pension credit and he, or if he has a partner, his partner, is—
(aa) a person on income support, on income-based jobseeker’s allowance or an income-related employment and support allowance; or
(bb) a person with an award of universal credit

RA1044 Total council tax revenue foregone – pensioners

This number should be a monetary amount (£000).

It should be the difference between the amount of council tax pensioners would have been charged if your Local Council Tax Support scheme did not exist and the amount they are actually billed.

This figure should be the total amount of council tax forgone for the whole of the financial year from every pensioner who receives a discount due to local council tax support.

RA1045 Total council tax revenue foregone - working age people

This number should be a monetary amount (£000).

It should be the difference between the amount of council tax working age people would have been charged if your Local Council Tax Support scheme did not exist and the amount they are actually billed.

This figure should be the total amount of council tax forgone for the whole of the financial year from working age claimants who receives a discount due to local council tax support.

RA1046 Total amount of council tax revenue foregone

This automatic calculation is the sum of RA1044 and RA1045.

RA1047 The total amount paid to local parishes (by the billing authority) with respect to their council tax support allocation

Please enter here the amount (in £000) that you are planning to distribute to local parishes with respect to council tax support during the whole of the financial year. (Also see RA675).

RA1051 Payment to operators in respect of depreciation which is included in RA275

(For GLA only) That part of the subsidy paid to TfL subsidiaries which covers the depreciation costs of those bodies and which is included in RA275 “Public transport: support to operators”.

Question 14

Housing revenue account (HRA)

Accepted Answer

Principles

1. The figures are to be completed on a non IAS 19 basis in respect of retirement benefits. Short term accumulating compensated absences should be reflected in the same way as in the RA form with the reversal in RA4011, and generally paragraph 2.11 of the general guidance notes is applicable, except there is no memorandum box for alternative treatments.

PFI unitary charges - these should be dealt with in accordance with section 2.15 of the general guidance notes on the RA suite. The charge should go to whichever of lines 4021-4023 is most appropriate.

With exception of short term accumulating compensated absences mentioned above, items that do not affect the balance on the HRA, such as the surplus/deficit on disposal of property, plant and equipment, should not be included in the HRA lines.

2. If the authority maintains a Housing Repairs Account (HRepA), transactions in it are to be treated as if they had been consolidated with the HRA. This means

any transfers between the two accounts are to be excluded from the figures
any expenditure from HRepA is to be included in Repairs and Maintenance
any income credited to HRepA is to included in the appropriate HRA line
the balance on the HRepA is to be included in RA4046

RA4001 Dwelling rents (gross)

Dwelling rents (gross)

General needs housing
Sheltered accommodation
Temporary accommodation
Social Homebuy, shared ownership and affordable rents

RA4002 Non-dwelling rents (gross)

Non-dwelling rents (gross)

Garages
Shops
Land
Other (eg pubs, telephone masts, wayleaves)

RA4003 Tenants’ leaseholders’ and other charges for services and facilities

Tenants’ charges for services and facilities

Service charges
- Since 2002-03 authorities can unpool service charges as part of rent restructuring and, where this has been done, service charges should be included here, along with those which have always been levied as a separate service charge. Authorities should only remain pooled where there is a good reason (i.e. lift maintenance in tower blocks, which would make generally less desirable accommodation more expensive if the costs were unpooled). Service charges that remain pooled should be included within Dwelling Rents (Gross) – RA4001.)
Heating and utility charges
Charges to tenants for Supporting People services
Charges for other welfare services (activities that at present could be charged to either the HRA or the GF) (excluding essential care)
Other charges to tenants (include items such as laundry and cleaning not identified above).

Leaseholders’ charges for services and facilities

Other charges for services and facilities

Community centres
Commercial properties

RA4004 Contributions towards expenditure (other than government grants and assistance)

Contributions towards expenditure

From social services authorities
In respect of transferred dwellings
Rechargeable repairs
Grants for Supporting People initiative (to HRA tenants only)
Compensation payments from contractors and settlement of insurance claims
Financial assistance from the Government for repair of HRA property damaged as a result of an emergency or disaster

Reimbursement of costs

Court costs, insurance and other income

RA4005 Government grants and assistance (including downward adjustments)

Grants and other assistance receivable from central government.

RA4006 Interest on investments credited direct to the HRA

HRA investment income (calculated in accordance with the item 8 determination)

Mortgage interest on HRA properties sold under RTB
Interest on capital cash balances
Interest on revenue cash balances

RA4007 Transfers from GF

Transfers to the HRA from the GF required or permitted by legislation, including Schedule 4 to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and determinations and directions made under it.

Include the HRA share of interest receivable initially credited to the GF.

RA4008 Transfers from MRR

Transfers to the HRA from the MRR permitted by legislation, including Schedule 4 to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and determinations and directions made under it.

RA4011 HRA - Appropriation to/from Accumulated Absences Account

Short-term accumulated compensated absences refers to benefits that employees receive as part of their contract of employment, entitlement to which is built up as they provide services to the council. The most significant benefit covered by this heading is holiday pay, where employees build up an entitlement to paid holidays as they work. Under the Code, the cost of providing holidays and similar benefits is required to be recognised when employees render services that increase their entitlement to future compensated absences.

The Accumulated Absences Account absorbs the differences that would otherwise arise from accruing for compensated absences earned but not taken in the year, e.g. annual leave entitlement carried forward at 31 March. Regulation 30H of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003 No 3146, as amended by SI 2010 No 454 ) requires that the impact revenue account to be neutralised in this way.

The appropriations to/from the account should be entered in this line.

RA4015 Total housing revenue account (HRA) income

This automatic calculation equals the sum of RA4001 to RA4011.

RA4021 Repairs and maintenance

Repairs and maintenance

Responsive
Planned
Associated costs
- (Refer to SeRCOP table in Part Four, paragraph 19 (page 209) - it is recommended that the planning and clerical processing of repairs be classified as a management item, not repairs. However, it is acknowledged that there may be other types of cost associated with repairs, such as professional fees for specifying and inspecting work, which may be included under repairs.

RA4022 Supervision and management (including CDC)

Supervision and management

Policy and management
Managing tenancies
Right-to-buy administration
Rent collection, recovery and accounting
HRA Non-distributed costs.

RA4023 Special services

Special services

Communal heating
Communal lighting
Lifts
Laundry services
Caretaking
Concierge schemes
Cleaning
Ground maintenance
Welfare services (excluding essential care)
Other special services (eg CCTV)

RA4024 Rents, rates, taxes and other charges

Rents, rates, taxes and other charges

Lease rentals on property
Properties where LA landlord is responsible for the council tax
Rates and water charges payable in non-dwellings
Insurance costs paid by the landlord

RA4025 Direct charges to the HRA - Interest payable and similar charges including amortisation of premiums and discounts

Exclude transfers to General Fund (GF). This should be included in RA4029.

RA4026 Charges to the HRA for debt repayment or non-interest charges in respect of credit arrangements (including on balance sheet PFI schemes)

Include any debt repayment associated with the Housing Revenue Account (HRA). PFI schemes should be treated in the same way as on the General Fund Revenue Account part of the form (See RA General Guidance 2.15).

Include the charge for depreciation in the HRA.

Impairment charges should also be included in this line unless the authority has reversed the impairment charge out in reliance on the Impairment Adjustment item in the credit section of the HRA Item 8 Credit and Item 8 Debit (General) Determination from 1 April 2012, in which case both the impairment charge and the reversal should be excluded from the return.

RA4027 Capital expenditure charged to the HRA (CERA)

Capital expenditure met from the HRA or from reserves. Record expenditure only in respect of the year in which it was incurred, not when it is put into reserves in anticipation of future years’ capital expenditure.

RA4028 Debt management costs

RA4029 Transfers to GF

Transfers from the HRA to the GF required or permitted by the legislation, including Schedule 4 to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and determinations and directions made under it.

Include the HRA share of interest payable and similar charges initially charged to the GF.

RA4030 Transfers to MRR

Transfers from the HRA to the MRR required or permitted by legislation, including Schedule 4 to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and determinations and directions made under it.

Exclude any amount in respect of depreciation charged to the HRA. This should be included in RA4026.

RA4033 Provision for bad debts (+/-)

Provision made for bad debts charged to the HRA.

RA4035 Total housing revenue account (HRA) expenditure

This automatic calculation equals the sum of RA4021 to RA4033.

RA4040 Surplus or deficit for the year on HRA services

This automatic calculation equals RA4015 minus RA4035.

RA4046 Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Reserves

Include earmarked reserves and any balances on the HRA and the Housing Repairs Account. Exclude: balance on the Major Repairs Reserve.

Question 15

Memorandum section on investment properties

Accepted Answer

Local authorities should record here information on all investment properties owned directly by the authority. This must include investment properties recorded in the TSR and the Revenue Outturn Summary.

RA INVPRP1 Investment properties

Investment properties has the same meaning as defined under IAS 40 interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. Include only investment properties that are accounted for as the authority’s own assets i.e. not owned through companies or joint ventures. Include all investments properties.

RA INVPRP2 Within LA boundary

Investment properties within the council’s electoral boundary area.

RA INVPRP3 Outside boundary but within LEP area

Investment properties within the bounds of the authority’s Local Enterprise Partnership region but outside the electoral boundary.

RA INVPRP4 Outside LEP area

Investment properties outside of the authority’s Local Enterprise Partnership region. Councils should provide a brief description of the rationale for any properties in this category, noting the intended benefit for the council’s residents.

Col1 Income (-)

Income from investment properties has the same meaning as income defined under IAS 40 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. The amount recorded should be the same as that recorded in the statement of accounts under the relevant disclosures.

Col 2 Direct costs

Costs from investment properties has the same meaning as direct operating expenses defined under IAS 40 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. The amount recorded should be the same as that recorded in the statement of accounts under the relevant disclosures.

Col3 Attributable minimum revenue provision

Where there is outstanding financing associated with one or more of the authority’s investment properties, the council should record the associated MRP costs here. Where the council uses the asset life model to determine the MRP, the amount entered here should be consistent with the amount of provision calculated for its investment property assets as recorded in the statement of accounts. If the council does not attribute MRP to specific assets, then the council should apply a reasonable apportionment of its total MRP costs to its investment assets; the amount apportioned should reflect the investment assets contribution to the authority’s outstanding capital financing requirement. An LA should only record no value here if none of its investment properties are financed by debt.

Col 4 Attributable interest costs

Where the authority has external borrowing directly attributable to its investment properties, the interest cost should be recorded here. The interest cost should be the same as recognised under proper accounting practices in the statement of accounts. Where the authority has external borrowing, but cannot attribute specific loans to the investment properties, it should apply a reasonable apportionment of the relevant interest costs to its investment properties; the amount apportioned should reflect the investment assets contribution to the authority’s external borrowing.

Col 5 Total costs

Sum of direct and financing costs.

Col 6 Net income

Income less Total costs

Cookies on GOV.UK

Applies to England

Expenditure

Financing

Additional items

RA1 Education

RA110 to RA150 Schools

RA110 Early years

RA120 Primary schools – including nursery classes in primary schools

RA130 Secondary schools

RA140 Special schools and alternative provision

RA145 Post-16 provision

RA165 Other education and community budget

Young people’s learning and development

Adult and community learning

Service strategy and other educational functions

RA2 Transport

RA210 Transport planning, policy and strategy

Groups 230 and 247 Highways and roads – maintenance

RA230 Highways and roads – structural maintenance

Structural maintenance – roads

Structural maintenance – bridges

RA247 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance

Environmental maintenance

Safety maintenance

Routine maintenance

RA248 Winter service

RA249 Street lighting (including energy costs)

Group 250 Traffic management and road safety

RA251 Congestion charging

RA252 Traffic management – bus lane enforcement

RA254 Road safety education and safe routes (including school crossing patrols)

Road safety education

RA258 Other traffic management

Other traffic management

RA260 Parking services

On-street parking

Off-street parking

Group 270 Public transport

RA271 Statutory concessionary fares

RA272 Discretionary concessionary fares

RA275 Support to operators

Bus services

Rail services

Other public transport services

RA276 Public transport co-ordination

RA280 Airports, harbours and toll facilities

Airports – directly or partly owned

Harbours, ports and docks – directly owned

Piers and jetties – directly owned

Toll roads and tunnels – directly owned

RA3 Health and social care

Children’s social care

RA310 Sure start children’s centres early years

RA313 Children looked after

Residential care

Fostering services

Adoption services

Special guardianship support

Short breaks (respite) for disabled children looked after

Children placed with family and friends

Education for children looked after

Leaving care support services

Asylum seekers

Other children looked after services

RA315 Other children and family services

RA322 Family support services

Direct payments

Short break (respite) for disabled children

Other support for disabled children

Targeted family support

Universal family support

RA323 Youth justice

RA325 Safeguarding children and young people’s services

Social work (including LA functions in relation to child protection)

Commissioning and children’s services strategy

Local safeguarding children board

RA326 Asylum seekers

RA327 Services for young people

Targeted services for young people