Rutland County Council’s deputy leader reacts to Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves’ autumn budget

A council’s deputy leader says that more government help is still needed to rescue local authority finances from a ‘perilous’ state.

Responding to yesterday’s budget by Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves, Coun Andrew Johnson (Lib Dem), Rutland County Council's deputy leader and cabinet member for resources, said some changes, such as the national insurance hike would impact on council budgets and not enough has been allocated to plug the gap in social care funding. He said it is also clear that the government will expect local authorities to increase council tax bills.

He said: “Like many households around the UK, we’ve been waiting to see what’s in the chancellor’s autumn statement. Things like changes to National Insurance contributions for businesses will increase pressure on councils whose budgets are already severely stretched. However, it’s the government’s wider plans for investing in the public sector that are most critical. We need the government to prioritise support for vulnerable people in its future spending plans.

“The chancellor spoke about more funding for local government in the form of grants, but we’ll need to see the details behind these plans to fully understand their impact. We also need serious long-term reform to the way that social care and SEND services are funded at a national level. The additional funding for SEND (£1bn) is a 6% increase at a time when demand for these services is rising at more than 20%.

“Long-term financial settlements for councils are crucial for sustainable financial planning, rather than short single-year settlements, so it’s encouraging to hear the chancellor speak about this in her statement. This approach would allow councils to make longer term spending plans, rather than limiting us to annual cycles because we don’t know how much money we’ll have in another 12 months’ time.

“What is clear from the autumn statement is that, to achieve a 3.2% real terms increase in funding, the government still expects councils to continue increasing council tax by the maximum currently allowed (5%), to be able provide essential services for all residents and support the most vulnerable.

“The next important announcement for councils will be the provisional local government settlement for 2025/26, which we expect in December. This will give us more detail on how the new government plans to fund councils over the next year, as we prepare our annual budgets.

"For Rutland, the key area of pressure remains the overall cost of providing care for a growing number of people who need it, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.

He concluded: “The financial picture remains perilous for many councils. Our next quarterly budget report is due at cabinet in November and will give an indication of how we’re progressing with our plans for spending and saving money. We’re doing all we can to make savings by changing, rather than cutting, local services. However, this is getting harder, not easier.”