New fears for Sutton services after George Osborne’s Autumn Statement but

The 2015 Autumn Statement was delivered by Chancellor George Osborne yesterday, but the latest report provided as many questions as answers, despite expectations that it would finally bring closure to various consultations relating to the recruitment sector and controversial travel and subsistence changes. By promoting competition for SME credit and encouraging more apprentices to start work, as well as extending the Small Business Rate Relief, the Chancellor has shown that he is committed to supporting the UK’s SMEs.

“And, talking of infrastructure, the announcement of significant increases in flood defence spending will, I am sure, be welcomed by many businesses in Gloucestershire – and of course by all of us who actually live here too”.

“We will be looking at the Chancellor’s announcement in fine detail over the coming days but it looks like a bleak financial settlement for local government”. This means that around 405,000 of the smallest businesses will continue to receive 100 per cent relief from business rates, with a further 200,000 benefiting from tapering relief.

Council tax: Local councils will be provided with the power to increase council tax by up to 2% to help towards the cost of social care within that area. However, this will be paid for by the current working generations.

Sutton Conservatives said in a statement: “Our approach is not simply retrenchment, it is to reform and rebuild”.

Mr Osborne said during his speech to the Commons on Wednesday that “public satisfaction with our local government services has risen”.

He added, ‘In the coalition government’s March budget, cumulative cuts to real departmental spending limits were forecast to reach £42bn by 2018/19.

Earlier this week, Mr Allan also responded to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which indicated a levelling-off of improvements to business survival rates, with the rate of business creation decreasing by 0.4 per cent while the rate of business deaths fell by 0.1 per cent between 2013 and 2014.

“We were already considering a council tax increase of two per cent”.

However trade bodies have said the move does not go far enough and called Osborne’s failure to announce a complete overhaul of the system disappointing, unsustainable, and unfair.