Earlier this week the Government issued its ‘provisional local government finance settlement’—the pre-Christmas indication to councils of the money they will have available for local services next year.

The Government proposes that Cambridgeshire County Council’s ‘core spending power’ (the overall revenue funding available for council services) should increase by 9.5 per cent. Unfortunately however …

• That’s less than the current rate of inflation, so overall it will buy less.
• Half of the 9.5 per cent is from the council’s power to raise council tax—in other words, the Government expects local tax payers to shoulder a lot of the extra costs.
• Some of the remainder replaces lost business rates income.