Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to introduce annual early-intervention top-ups for local authorities after the revenue support grant has been phased out.

Mr Marcus Jones

My rt. hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (George Osborne) announced that by the end of this Parliament, local government will retain 100% of its business rates. As part of this, existing central government grants to local government, such as Revenue Support Grant, will be phased out and councils will be given new responsibilities and greater powers to shape their local areas.

We have lots of work to do over the coming months to work out the details on this new system, including how to manage the risk to local authorities of changes in their local tax income. We will, therefore, be consulting widely with colleagues and with local government on this as we move towards implementation.