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Councils face 2.9%
cut in funding
UK-News
December 2013
Local councils in England are
facing a 2.9% cut in overall Government funding for 2014/15, it
has been announced.
The figure, announced by local
government minister Brandon
Lewis in a written statement to
the House of Commons, does
not include the Greater London
Authority.
Mr Lewis said that it should
leave councils with "considerable total spending power" of
£2,089 per dwelling and give
them the stability and certainty
needed to plan budgets and
"move ahead with transforming
local services and ongoing efficiency".
He also announced that Local
Government Secretary Eric
Pickles and Chancellor George
Osborne have agreed measures
to allay council concerns that
central government support for
council tax freezes might be
withdrawn on a "cliff edge"
basis in future years.
Mr Lewis said: "English local government accounts for £1 of every £4
spent on public services, and is expected to spend some £117 billion in
2013-14. So the settlement that we
are proposing recognises the responsibility of local government to find
sensible savings and make better use
of its resources.
"This settlement marks the second
year of business rates retention, and
leaves councils with considerable
total spending power, with an overall
reduction, excluding the Greater London Authority, for next year of just
2.9% We expect the average spending
power per dwelling to be some
£2,089."
He added: "We have tried to be fair
to every part of the country - north
and south, rural and urban, metropolitan and shire. "Of course, it is inevitable that individual local councils
will wish to call for more funding for
their area. Unlike the old system
which encouraged councils to talk
down their local areas to win more
funding, the decentralisation of local
government finance now puts councils
in the driving seat: rewarding them
for supporting local enterprise, building more homes and backing local
jobs." Explaining the measures being
taken to ensure that the council tax
freeze does not destabilise local government finances, Mr Lewis said: "
From April 2014, funding for 2011/12
and 2013/14 freezes is now in the
main local government settlement
total for future years.
"I can also announce that the Secretary of State has agreed with the
Chancellor that the funding for the
next two freeze years will also be
built into the spending review baseline. We hope this will give maximum
possible certainty for councils that
the extra funding for freezing council
tax will remain available, and there
will not be a 'cliff edge' effect from
the freeze grant disappearing in due
course. "We have done our part - we
now expect councils to do theirs in
helping hard-working people with the
cost of living."Source Press Association Yahoo News
Iraq violence: More than 70 people killed in attacks
Iraq has suffered one of its bloodiest
days in recent months with a wave of
attacks killing more than 70 people,
many of them pilgrims.
The deadliest single attack came in
the evening when two car bombs targeting Shia pilgrims killed at least 20
in Rashid, a southern suburb of Baghdad.
Thousands of Shia are currently mak-
ing their way to the holy city of Karbala.
Violence in Iraq this year has reached
a level not seen since 2008, raising
fears of a return to civil war.
A further 21 people died in a series of
bomb blasts around the capital earlier
in the day.
Scores more were injured in Monday's
violence.
Brazen attacks
Earlier in the day, militants tried to
storm a police station in the town of
Baiji and a council headquarters in
the city of Tikrit.
They were reported to have briefly
taken hostages in a council building in
Tikrit before it was retaken by security forces.
At least nine people were killed in
Baiji while another three died in the
attack in Tikrit.
A bus carrying Shia pilgrims in the
northern city of Mosul was also targeted in a gun attack which killed 12
people.
Correspondents say the attacks show
how insurgents are now targeting symbols of government authority on a near
daily basis. The UN has said the
monthly death toll dropped to 659 in
November, including 565 civilians and
94 members of the Iraqi security
forces, compared with 979 in October.
But more than 7,150 civilians and 950
security forces personnel have now
been killed since January, the highest
annual toll since 2008.Source
bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-