Surrey County Council set to overspend by £24 MILLION – see Lib Dem news here.
“The new government has also dropped plans to allow councils to retain their business rates next year, which the Conservative administration anticipated as a potential lifeline for the county council when the budget was set in February.” This is incredibly significant for the Council going forward. The Local Government Finance Bill never made it to the Queen’s Speech.
George Osbourne promised Councils in 2015 that they could keep the £26billion raised in Business Rates in lieu of the Block Grant. He billed it as “embarking on the biggest transfer of power to our local government in living memory.”
Now there is not only no power, there is no money either.
A link to the Council’s budget monitoring report can be found here: