The Government’s priorities for the next two years were announced yesterday and left fundamental questions open for local government.
Where will council funding come from? What will the sustainable, long awaited, solution to our care crisis be? Where is the tangible support for schools and children's social care?
While legislation aims to make the Brexit process clearer, there was no such clarity for local government. Instead the Local Government Finance Bill was dropped and possibly with it the commitment of 100 per cent business rate retention by 2020. This was a cornerstone of our agreement with Ministers, something members had lobbied and consulted on for years. For this to be dropped now is hugely disappointing.
The LGA and Independent Group Members will continue to push for a swift resolution to how the funding gap of £5.8bn will be addressed, along with the other omissions from the Queens Speech, however at a time of political uncertainty and unsteady government, policy changes are going to be slow.
To find out more, please read the LGA's Queen’s Speech – On the Day Briefing 2017.