ABSTRACT
In the UK services such as Police, Fire, Education, Social Services and Health are supplied by government to the population. Funds are generated locally (through means such as Council Tax) and are topped up by Central Government to provide a standard level of service. The way in which funds are allocated varies across the UK but in this paper we are focusing on England, where funds for services (except for health) are allocated by the Standard Spending Assessment (SSA) formula. The Standard Spending Assessment system was devised to determine how allocations should be modified from a strictly per capita basis. The system is based mainly on a regression analysis of costs incurred by authorities on a set of explanatory variables that might seem relevant to costs.
