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Councils to retain 100 per cent of local tax by 2020
Osborne has revealed new plans for his ‘devolution revolution’, which will allow local government to use local taxes to fund frontline services. In addition, local authorities will be able to cut business rates to help promote growth in their respective areas. Areas that have agreed to have an elected mayor, will be able to increase rates to fund local infrastructure projects.
The Local Government Association (LGA) praised the announcement and said it would grant councils more freedom to set local discounts. Councillor Gary Porter, LGA chairman, said: “Councils and businesses both agree that business rates should be a local tax set by local areas. It is right that all of the money which a business pays is retained by local government and this will be a vital boost to investment in infrastructure and public services.
“While this is good news for councils and businesses, local authorities will face almost £10 billion of cost pressures by 2020 so we will now seek to work with the government about how this proposal can be introduced more quickly.
“We would expect measures to ensure local areas with less ability to generate business rates income do not suffer as a result of these changes and all councils are also given leeway to vary business rates up as well as down.”
The Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) approved of the announcement and in particular the independence it would bring to councils. However, it warned that the scheme must be able to generate enough extra revenue in order to cover new responsibilities.
Jonathan Carr-West, chief executive at the LGiU, said: “The chancellor's devolution revolution must be a locally-led process. We don't want to leave councils out in the cold because of uncertainty. This process will need to be managed in a way that is fair and that gives local authorities and people the maximum possible control over the economic destiny of their areas.
“The key question here is not how much money will these measures raise but will it be enough to cover any new responsibilities. As such, we look forward to seeing the detail of the chancellor's plan in the Autumn Spending Review in November.”
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