Jim McMahon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim McMahon on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much the Government plans to provide to each local authority to meet the cost of the introduction of the living wage.

Mr Marcus Jones

All new Government policies which impact on local government are assessed for whether they will represent a new burden on local authorities, against the criteria published in the New Burdens guidance. The New Burdens doctrine does not apply to policies which apply the same rules to local authorities and to private sector bodies, such as the apprenticeships levy, the national living wage and changes to national insurance. The guidance is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-burdens-doctrine-guidance-for-government-departments.

In setting the future funding settlement for local government at the Spending Review in November 2015, the Government took account of a wide range of factors, including some which fell outside the New Burdens doctrine but nonetheless represented new costs for local authorities such as the apprenticeships levy, the national living wage and changes to national insurance.