It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on management and protection of conservation areas, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities and proposals to hypothecate funding for this specific purpose would run counter to the principles set out in the Verity House Agreement.