On 8 July 2015, the Chancellor George Osborne delivered his
seventh Budget. Below is a summary of his main announcements, although bear in
mind we are still working through the detail and its implications for us as a
council and our residents.
The deficit is planned to be cut at the same pace as during
last Parliament, securing a budget surplus a year later than planned in
2019-20. We expect that the final steer on where further reductions will fall
will not be available until the autumn when the Spending Review will be
published. This will provide us with a better indication of our funding levels
over the next three or four years.
The main points from yesterday's budget were:
·
A new National Living Wage of over £9 an hour by
2020 for the over 25s. This will be introduced from April 2016, starting at
£7.20 an hour
·
Public Sector Pay Rises capped at 1% per year
for the next four years
·
The tax-free Personal Allowance will be increased
from £10,600 in 2015-16 to £11,000 in April 2016
·
The dividend tax credit (which reduces the amount
of tax paid on income from shares) will be replaced by a new £5,000 tax-free
dividend allowance for all taxpayers from April 2016. Tax rates on dividend
income will be increased
·
The higher rate threshold (40%) will increase from
£42,385 in 2015-16 to £43,000 in 2016-17
·
Increased NHS funding of £8 billion by 2020
·
Three million new apprenticeships will be created
by 2020, funded by a levy on large employers
·
30 hours of free childcare will be offered to
working families with 3 and 4 year olds from September 2017 which is an
increase from the 15 hours they are currently offered
·
£30m package of support is available to speed up
the adoption process for children in local authority care
·
The
Treasury said it was working towards devolving powers over transport, economic
development and some health spending to Sheffield, Liverpool, West Midlands and
Leeds. Officials said they were also “making good progress” towards a deal with
Cornwall. Exact details are expected to be published with the autumn Spending
Review.
We still anticipate that broadly the Council will continue to
need to achieve around £25m savings on average each year until at least
2019/20. It is likely that we will still need to wait until December when the
provisional Local Government Finance Settlement is published before we know
with certainty the precise impact on Worcestershire. Obviously myself and the
finance team will keep you informed as detail becomes known.
Kind regards,
Clare
No comments:
Post a Comment