Enter to open, tab to navigate, enter to select
2011 Autumn Statement: local government implications
Practical Law UK Legal Update 0-514-1698 (Approx. 3 pages)
2011 Autumn Statement: local government implications
by PLC Public Sector
| Published on 29 Nov 2011 • England, Wales |
On 29 November 2011, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne delivered his Autumn Statement responding to the Office for Budget Responsibility's "Economic and fiscal outlook". This update summarises the local government implications.
Speedread
On 29 November 2011, the Chancellor, George Osborne, delivered his Autumn Statement responding to economic forecasts published by the Office for Budget Responsibility. The statement contains various announcements of specific interest to local government.
2011 Autumn Statement
On 29 November 2011, the Chancellor delivered his 2011 Autumn Statement responding to economic forecasts published by the Office for Budget Responsibility. This update looks at the issues covered in the statement that will be of interest to local government.
Local government issues
To ensure sustainable public finances and meet its fiscal targets, the government will:
- Set plans for public spending in 2015-16 and 2016-17 that are in line with the spending reductions over the Spending Review 2010 period (see Legal update, Spending Review 2010: local government implications).
- Set public sector pay awards at an average of 1% for each of the two years after the current pay freeze comes to an end.
- Ask independent pay review bodies to consider how public sector pay can be made more responsive to local labour markets, so that public sector pay (which is usually set on a national basis) reflects local labour market conditions.
- Set aside an extra £675 million for local authorities in England who freeze or reduce their council tax in 2012-13. Devolved administrations will receive additional funding in line with this increase, based on the Barnett formula.
- Facilitate private investment by a new strategy for co-ordinating public and private investment in the UK infrastructure, allowing local authorities more flexibility to support major infrastructure by allowing local borrowing against the Community Infrastructure Levy (see Legal update, 2011 Autumn Statement: property implications).
- Take action to increase house building, stabilise the housing market and enable more people to own their own home (see Legal update, New housing strategy launched).
- Introduce a package of measures to deliver better value for the UK from public procurement (see Legal update, 2011 Autumn Statement (including Growth Review and National Infrastructure Plan): competition and regulatory implications).
- Create a more educated workforce, by providing an additional £1.2 billion for capital investment in schools including:
- an extra £600 million to fund 100 additional Free Schools; and
- an additional £600 million (sufficient to deliver an additional 40,000 school places) to support those local authorities with the greatest demographic pressures.
- By 2014/15, invest a further £380m a year in extending the offer of 15 hours’ free education and care a week to disadvantaged two year olds.
Further reading
For more information on the:
- Main environmental announcements of the statement, see Legal update, 2011 Autumn Statement: environmental implications.
- Construction implications of the statement, see Legal update, 2011 Autumn Statement: construction implications.
- Value added tax (VAT) exemption that the government will introduce for services shared between VAT exempt bodies, see Legal update, 2011 Autumn Statement: private client implications.
- Business tax implications, see Legal update, 2011 Autumn Statement: business tax implications.
For all other PLC coverage of the 2011 Autumn Statement, see PLC Autumn Statement.