We asked whether an impact assessment had been carried out to consider whether local authorities would be able to fully compensate organisations, particularly smaller charities providing local government services, for the increased NIC costs out of the £515 million.53 MHCLG told us that at every spending review it looks “in the round” at local authority spending and need with the NICs factored into that assessment. It said that through the autumn statement and the local government finance settlement, it had put in an additional £5 billion in grant funding.54 When pressed MHCLG told us this significant uplift in funding, some of which would help compensate for increased costs, was a best estimate and they could not control or comment on the actions of individual councils. However, neither MHCLG nor HM Treasury could point us to any assessment of the impact of the NIC changes on local government services.55