Autumn Statement 2014 - by practice area

December 3, 2014

Local Government Lawyer details some of the key policy decisions set out by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in this year's Autumn Statement.

Governance and business rates

Public sector efficiency: The Government will seek a further £10bn of efficiency savings by 2017-18. This will be led by the Cabinet Office, working with HM Treasury and departments.
VAT refunds and shared services: As part of the shared services agenda, from 1 April 2015 ‘non-criminal legal services’ will be added to the VAT refunds scheme to facilitate legal advice being shared across departments. Non-departmental public bodies will benefit from this shared service if their parent department agrees.
Glasgow and Clyde Valley City Deal: the Autumn Statement confirms the Government’s contribution of £500m over 30 years from 2015-16 to the Glasgow and Clyde Valley Infrastructure Fund, part of the Glasgow and Clyde Valley City Deal agreed in August 2014.
Treatment of full devolution of non-domestic rates to the Welsh Government: Agreement has been reached with the Welsh Government on full devolution of non-domestic (business) rates policy. A fully devolved regime will be operational by April 2015.
Tax exemption for travel expenses of members of local authorities: the Government will exempt from Income Tax and employee NICs travel expenses paid to councillors by their local authority. The exemption will be limited to the Approved Mileage Allowance Payment (AMAP) rates where it applies to mileage payments. This change will take effect from 6 April 2015.
Business rates administration review: interim findings: the Government will publish its interim findings in December 2014, setting out a summary of stakeholder responses and providing an update on "how the Government proposes to respond to businesses’ calls for clearer billing, better sharing of information and a more efficient appeals system".
Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR): the Government will extend the doubling of SBRR for a further year from 1 April 2015.
Business rates: discount: the Government will increase the business rates discount for retail and food and drink premises with a rateable value of £50,000 and below to £1,500 up to the state aids limit for 1 year from 1 April 2015.
Business rates: long-term review: the Government will conduct a review of the future structure of business rates to report by Budget 2016. The review will be fiscally neutral and consistent with the Government’s agreed financing of local authorities. The Government will publish terms of reference in due course.

Adult/Children’s Services

Public service transformation: Responding to the recommendations of the Service Transformation Challenge Panel, the Government will look to develop and extend the principles of the Troubled Families programme to other groups of people with complex needs from the next Spending Review. "To move in this direction, the Government will: complete analysis on the costs and outcomes of key groups of people with multiple needs suggested by the Panel, and the evidence around the best way to help them; review the nature of the funding available for service transformation, with a view to improving incentives in future; look at how best to align inspection and accountability regimes so that they encourage services to integrate around people with multiple needs; explore options to stimulate innovation to take advantage of the latest digital techniques – this will include implementing digital tools to improve service outcomes and accessibility for local people and enable organisations to deliver services more efficiently; publish local service budgets for 2015-16 on a single webpage in December 2014."
Health and social care: To embed joint planning in health and social care further, and to build on the Better Care Fund, the Government commits to giving local authorities and clinical commissioning groups (in collaboration with NHS England) indicative multi-year budgets as soon as possible after the next Spending Review.
Funding in schools and adult education: the Government will also work towards enabling greater multi-year certainty in funding for schools and certainty for adult education providers where appropriate, in the context of area based strategies.
Adult community learning and mental health: the Government will commit £20m in 2015-16 and 2016-17 to fund courses to help adults experiencing mild to moderate depression, anxiety and sleep disorders in England.
Expansion of effective academy chains: the Government will provide £10m to drive up educational standards in areas of the north with the weakest provision by helping outstanding local academies sponsor local schools and supporting the expansion of the very best academy chains.

Housing and local growth

Local Growth Deals: the Government will allocate a further £1bn from the £12bn Local Growth Fund between 2016-17 and 2020-21 to support a second round of Growth Deals.
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park redevelopment (Olympicopolis): The Government will invest £141m to support the London Legacy Development Corporation and Mayor of London’s plans to build a new higher education and cultural quarter at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Enterprise Zones: the Government will extend the Enterprise Zone in Nottingham to a site in Derby. Further decisions on Enterprise Zones will be announced at Budget 2015.
Croydon Growth Zone: the Government will discuss plans for a Growth Zone with the London Borough of Croydon, which will be subject to value for money.
Ebbsfleet: the Government is making the first £100m available to fund infrastructure and land remediation at Ebbsfleet, “taking forward its commitment to build the first new garden city for almost 100 years, which will deliver up to 15,000 new homes”.
Bicester: the Government will support Bicester to provide up to 13,000 new homes, subject to value for money.
Barking Riverside: the Government will agree a principal heads of terms agreement for a loan of £55m to support the extension of the London Overground to Barking Riverside, to unlock the delivery of 11,000 homes.
Brent Cross: the Government supports the London Borough of Barnet and the Greater London Authority’s plans for the regeneration of Brent Cross, which could deliver 7,500 homes, subject to a full business case.
Affordable housing: the Government will extend affordable housing capital investment to 2018-19 and 2019-20, to ensure that 275,000 new affordable homes can be delivered over the next Parliament.
Public sector land: housing delivery: ambitious targets will be set for the release of public sector land between 2015 and 2020. “The Government is committed to releasing land with capacity for up to 150,000 homes.”
Northstowe: the Government will take forward development at Northstowe to support accelerated delivery of up to 10,000 homes, and evaluate the feasibility and economic impact of using this model on a wider scale to support and accelerate housing supply.
Housing associations: the Government will consult on ways to increase the borrowing capacity of housing associations in relation to the valuation of properties transferred from local authorities.
Estates regeneration: Budget 2014 announced a £150m fund to kick start the regeneration of social housing estates through repayable loans. Following a bidding round, Grahame Park, Blackwall Reach, Aylesbury Estate and New Union Wharf regeneration projects have all now been approved for funding, subject to due diligence and contract negotiation.
Shared ownership: the Government will work with housing associations, lenders and the regulator to identify and lift barriers to extending shared ownership. This will include the launch of a consultation on options for streamlining the process for selling-on shared ownership properties.
Local authority housing: Cllr Keith House and Natalie Elphicke are leading a review to consider the role local authorities can play in supporting overall housing supply within existing fiscal plans. “The Government welcomes the emerging recommendations on the importance of local authorities as Housing Delivery Enablers and greater transparency over local authority housing land.”
Housing Benefit fraud and error local authority incentive scheme: New financial rewards will be paid to local authorities that reduce the amount of money lost through fraud and error in Housing Benefit.

Planning

Establishing the principle of development: the Government will take forward measures to ensure that the principle of development need only be established once.
Section 106 negotiations: the Government will take steps to speed up section 106 negotiations, to reduce delays to the planning process.
Speed of decisions: the Government will keep the speed of major decisions under review, “with minimum performance thresholds increasing to 50% of major decisions made on time as performance improves”.
Small applications: new data will be published on local authorities’ performance in meeting their statutory duty to process smaller planning applications within 8 weeks.
Small sites: the Government will work with industry and local authorities to test whether more can be done to support the approval of small sites in the planning system.
Compulsory Purchase reforms: the Government will publish proposals for consultation at Budget 2015 “to make processes clearer, faster and fairer, with the aim of bringing forward more brownfield land for development”.
National Transport Policy: the Government plans to lay the National Networks National Policy Statement before Parliament in December 2014 for consideration and a formal vote.

Regulatory and licensing

Business Focus on Enforcement: the Government will put the Business Focus on Enforcement scheme on a permanent footing, enabling businesses to bid for government resources to conduct reviews of regulatory enforcement in their industries and present evidence and findings to government and regulators. The government is launching the next bidding round today (3 December 2014).
Local authority licensing: the Government will work with local authorities and businesses on a simplification programme with an expectation that, by 2018, every local authority in England will offer a single online application process where businesses only need register their details once, and ensure that information on licensing requirements is streamlined and accessible online. "The Government, through the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), will monitor implementation of this, working with local authorities to remove blockages to simplification and gathering evidence of any legislative barriers that local authorities identify to streamlining processes and reducing burdens on business."

Health

NHS Funding: The Government will spend an extra £2bn on frontline NHS services in 2015-16. "This is part of a multi-year £3.1bn UK-wide investment in the future of the NHS. £1.5 bn will be used to help the NHS meet increased demand and deliver the best patient care in 2015-16, and £200m will be invested in a transformation fund to help deliver the first year of the NHS’s ‘Five Year Forward View’."
Fund for advanced care: The Government will use the £1bn of fines collected from banks that broke the foreign exchange rules to create a fund for advanced care in GP practices and community healthcare facilities.
Premises and technology investment: From 2015-16, £250m per year will be invested in modern premises and technology to bring GPs, nurses and specialists together so that patients can get the best care close to home. “These new primary care facilities will also be encouraged to join up closely with local job centres, social services and other community services.”

Procurement and contracts

Social investment tax relief (SITR): enlarging the scheme: the Government will seek EU approval to increase the investment limit to £5m per annum per organisation up to a maximum of £15m per organisation and to extend the relief to small-scale community farms and horticultural activities. The changes will come into effect on or after 6 April 2015, subject to state aids clearance. The Government will make special purpose vehicles for subcontracted and spot-purchase social impact bonds eligible for SITR through secondary legislation in autumn 2015. The Government will consult in early 2015 on introducing a Social Venture Capital Trust (VCT) in a future finance bill.

Source: Autumn Statement 2014