Improving Public Funding Allocation to Reduce Geographical Inequalities: Metadata and Documentation, 2024

Hoole, Charlotte and Agarwal, Sheela and Ayres, Sarah and Burchell, Jon and Davies, Ceri and Davies, Jonathan and Emmerich, Mike and Gilmour, James and Green, Anne and Mutibwa, Daniel and Pike, Andy and Russell, Megan and Taylor, Abigail and Velthuis, Sanne (2025). Improving Public Funding Allocation to Reduce Geographical Inequalities: Metadata and Documentation, 2024. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857834

The aim of this project is to examine how the UK Government can create an improved public funding allocation system in England to reduce geographical inequities. The project will contribute to the Government's policy goal to reduce spatial inequalities in the UK by proposing better ways of allocating funding between places in England, based on a much clearer understanding of the funding system and the policy problems arising from it. We will achieve this by drawing together existing evidence on public funding allocation to assess the current landscape in England and bring new knowledge to bear on the issues via stakeholder engagement, in coproduction with national/local policymakers and other interested groups. The impact will be to provide government with actionable lessons based on different options of policy reform for improving funding allocation mechanisms that, if taken forward, will positively impact policy, people and places.

Data description (abstract)

41 interviews were carried out between October and December 2024 with policy makers and practitioners across national and local government to 1) understand policy practitioner insight into current local government funding allocations aimed at reducing socio-economic disparities; 2) highlight the distinctions between devolved and non-devolved areas and differences within these groups in success and failures of funding allocations; 3) explore views on and perceived priorities for reform. These objectives are reflected in the interview schedule being deposited. A semi-structured approach allowed us to maintain consistency across the full set of interviews, and across our outputs and writeups, while leaving space for flexibility and to pursue lines of inquiry as needed.

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