With the Spending Review and the annual financial settlements for local government across the UK done and dusted, we now know where budgets broadly stand, between now and 2020 and it is taking local government expenditure to its lowest percentage of GDP since 1948. The move to four-year budgets in England will see significant further pain, on top of that already experienced, before a stabilisation in the latter years of that settlement. This optimistically assumes that there will not be a further recession during this period, high levels of housebuilding will be achieved and the move to localise business rates will run smoothly and fairly. Scotland and Wales are still working on the basis of annual settlements, which equate to a 3.5% cut and a 2% cut respectively. Local government expenditure across the UK including Northern Ireland will have fallen by 30% between 2010 and 2020. We have never before experienced this level of cuts over such a short period of time.
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