Freezing working-age benefits and Local Housing Allowances for four years from 2016-17 to 2019-20. It is estimated that this will save £4 billion a year by 2019-20. Working-age benefits that will be frozen are Jobseekers' Allowance; Employment and Support Allowance; Income Support; Child Benefit; applicable amounts for Housing Benefit; and Local Housing Allowance rates, with provision for high rent areas. The following benefits will be excluded from the freeze: Maternity Allowance; Statutory Sick Pay; Statutory Maternity Pay; Statutory Paternity Pay; Statutory Shared Parental Pay; Statutory Adoption Pay; disability, premiums for carers and pensioners in the frozen benefits; the Employment and Support Allowance Support Group component; and other disability, carer and pensioner benefits, which will continue to be increased in relation to prices or earnings as applicable.

The government will provide £800 million of funding for discretionary housing payments over the next five years in order to protect vulnerable claimants. This will come as a relief to authorities following a series of cases involving reliance on discretionary housing payments and whether they could be used to justify discrimination under the European Convention on Human Rights (see Legal update, Bedroom tax was justified as payment of DHPs overcame discrimination (High Court) and Burnip and others v Birmingham City Council and others [2012] EWCA Civ 629.

From April 2017, the automatic entitlement to housing support for new claims for Universal Credit by 18 to 21 year olds who are out of work will be removed (with certain exemptions, for example for vulnerable young people).

The benefit cap will be reduced to £20,000 in relation to areas outside London and to £23,000 in Greater London. The current exemptions to the cap will continue to apply. This follows a number of challenges to the validity of the cap (see Legal update, Supreme Court holds that benefit cap is lawful but breaches Article 3(1) of UN Convention on Rights of the Child).

From April 2016, Housing Benefit claims will be backdated for a maximum of four weeks.

The government has published a number of progress updates on the action that it is taking to improve the administration of business rates, including the appeals system, and on tackling business rates avoidance. This includes publishing a business tax roadmap by April 2016, which will set out plans for business taxes over the rest of the Parliament.

The government has published a consultation on the introduction of a business rates relief for local newspapers (see The case for a Business Rates Relief for local newspapers (8 July 2015)). The relief would be delivered through existing local authority discount powers (if the authorities choose to do this). The consultation proposes to fully reimburse authorities for any relief they grant to eligible properties. The government proposes publishing guidance on the relief (if brought into force) which would clearly define which types of local newspapers would be entitled to benefit from the relief.

The consultation document seeks information from local newspaper publishers regarding the current challenges they face, the type of property they occupy, how appropriate the current rules are, how "local newspaper" should be defined and how long the relief should last.

The consultation closes on 30 September 2015 and responses should be emailed to: [email protected].

From September 2017, free childcare entitlement will be doubled from 15 hours to 30 hours a week for working parents of three and four year olds. The government estimates that this free childcare is worth around £5,000 a year per child. This extension will be delivered earlier in some areas from September 2016.

In order to support the delivery of the increased free childcare entitlement, the average hourly rate providers receive will be increased and the government will undertake a review of childcare costs in order to set a rate that is fair for providers and delivers value for money for the taxpayer.

A new national living wage for workers aged 25 and above will introduce a premium on top of the current national minimum wage. From April 2016, the new national living wage will be increased to £7.20 (a 70p increase from the current national minimum wage, and 50p above the national minimum wage increase coming into effect in October 2015).

The number of apprenticeships in England will be increased to three million starts this Parliament. In order to effect this, the government will introduce a levy on large UK employers to fund the new apprenticeships.

The government will fund a pay award of 1% for public sector workforces for four years from 2016-17 onwards.

Rents in social housing in England will be reduced by 1% a year for four years, which will require housing associations and local authorities to deliver efficiency savings, making better use of the £13 billion annual subsidy they receive from the taxpayer. This measure should mean a 12% reduction in average rents by 2020-21 compared to current forecasts.

In order to protect the most vulnerable housing benefit claimants, the government will provide £800 million of funding for discretionary housing payments over the next five years.

Social housing tenants with household incomes of £40,000 and above in London, and £30,000 and above in the rest of England, will be required to "pay to stay", by paying a market or near market rent for their accommodation. Pay to stay will be the subject of further consultation going forward.

Local authorities will be required to repay the rent subsidy that they recover from high income tenants to the government, which will then be used to reduce the deficit. Housing associations will be able to use the rent subsidy that they recover to reinvest in new housing potentially increasing their rental income.

The government will review the use of lifetime tenancies in social housing to limit their use and ensure that households are offered tenancies that match their needs, and ensure the best use is made of the social housing stock.

From April 2017, the automatic entitlement to housing support for new claims in Universal Credit from 18 to 21 year olds who are out of work will be removed (with certain exemptions, for example, for vulnerable young people).

From April 2016, Housing Benefit claims will be backdated for a maximum of four weeks.

The government will conduct a review into the size and provision of crematoria facilities to make sure they are fit for purpose and sensitive to the needs of all users and faiths. The government will also review cremation legislation and coroner services.

As previously announced in the 2014 Autumn Statement, travel expenses paid to councillors by their local authority from 6 April 2016 will be exempt from income tax. The exemption will be limited to the Approved Mileage Allowance Payment rates where it applies to mileage payments. This change will be set out in the Summer Finance Bill 2015. HMRC has published a tax information and impact note on the proposed exemption, see HMRC: Tax exemption for travel expenses of members of local authorities (8 July 2015).

The government intends to expand its support for social impact bonds at the next Spending Review and will consult with experts to identify suitable options (see Practice note, Social impact bonds).

The government has announced that it will invest around £300 million over five years (from 2016) to tackle non-compliance in relation to tax by small and mid-sized businesses, public bodies and affluent individuals.

Continuing to implement the City Deal for Glasgow and the Clyde Valley alongside early stages of work towards the City Deals for Cardiff, Aberdeen and Inverness announced in the March Budget 2015 (see March 2015 Budget: implications for public sector lawyers).

Introducing "English votes for English laws" but additionally giving English MPs a veto in Westminster when debating matters that have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh or Northern Ireland Assemblies (see Legal update, Queen's Speech 2015: public sector implications: English Votes for English Laws). The proposals will give the decisive say over tax measures to MPs whose constituents are affected by those changes once further planned devolution to Scotland takes place. This new process is intended be in place before the 2016 Budget (subject to the approval of the House of Commons).

Announcing that it is working towards further devolution deals with the Sheffield City Region, Liverpool City Region, and Leeds, West Yorkshire and partner authorities, to be agreed in parallel with the Spending Review. If agreement is reached, including on an elected mayor working with local leaders to oversee new powers devolved from ministers, these city regions will be granted significant additional powers and have an opportunity to take control of their own affairs in order to support economic growth in their areas.

Progressing the devolution of powers to Greater Manchester, including putting Fire Services under the control of the new directly-elected Mayor; establishing a Greater Manchester Land Commission; granting the city region more powers over planning subject to the agreement of the Cabinet member representing the district in which the power is used, and inviting discussion of how central government and the city region might collaborate further on children's services and employment programmes.

Giving towns and counties to chance to agree devolution deals necessary to boost growth: for example, the government is currently working on a deal with Cornwall. The government has also stated that it remains open to any further proposals from local areas for devolution of significant powers in return for a mayor, in time for conclusion ahead of the Spending Review.

Inviting bids for a new round of enterprise zones, particularly from towns and districts working with local enterprise partnerships to develop bids.

Consulting on devolving powers on Sunday trading to city mayors and local authorities, allowing them to extend Sunday trading for additional hours within set parameters.

Continuing to expand the One Public Estate programme to local authorities in England with a significant asset base by committing a further £6 million to ensure efficient use of public assets.

The Cabinet Office will be given funding to explore a number of cross-cutting savings proposals. HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office will develop specific proposals to inform the next Spending Review.

Seed funding will be given to the Cabinet Office to generate a series of business cases to inform the next Spending Review. The government's ultimate aim is to deliver redesigned, user-friendly public services, fit for the digital age as well as delivering efficiencies across the public sector.

The government proposes to work with Local Government Pension Scheme administering authorities to ensure that investments are pooled in order to reduce costs. Local authorities will also be invited to come forward with their own proposals to meet common criteria for delivering savings.

A consultation will be published later in 2015 setting out those criteria and legislation to ensure that those administering authorities that do not come forward with sufficiently ambitious proposals are required to pool investments.

For a summary of all pensions-related measures in the July 2015 Budget, see Legal update, July 2015 Budget: key pensions announcements.

The government will invest £23 million in six next generation digital economy centres over six sites throughout the country (London, Swansea, Newcastle, Nottingham, York and Bath) who will also be required to obtain £22 million of additional funding and partner with local enterprise partnerships, regional councils, and local SMEs. These centres are intended to exploit opportunities across sectors of the digital economy, including healthcare and education.

Universities, local enterprise partnerships, businesses and cities will be invited to work with central government to map strengths and identify potential areas of strategic focus for different regions through a series of science and innovation audits. Universities will also be invited to develop proposals for supporting local collaboration and will be supported through funding streams (including the next £400 million round of the Research Partnership Investment Fund).

The government has committed itself to significant transport devolution in all of the country's city regions that elect a Mayor, as well as counties. This includes the rollout of Oyster-style smart and integrated ticketing systems and simpler, more flexible fares.

The government will be launching a new transport devolution package for the North. Building on the Northern Transport Strategy, that was jointly published by the government and Transport for the North (TfN) in 2015, the government is committing to:

The government will introduce a reform to vehicle excise duty to create a new Roads Fund (introducing a new banding system dependent on the carbon dioxide emissions of the vehicle). From 2020 to 21, all revenue raised from vehicle excise duty in England will be allocated to a new Roads Fund and invested directly back into the English strategic road network.