Member

The noble Lord, Lord Fox, made a number of points about local government income. The Government will work to ensure that, as far as practically possible, local government income from business rates is unaffected by the business rates tax rate changes. Beyond the Bill, the final settlement for 2025-26 makes available more than £69 billion for local government in England, which is a 4.3% real-terms increase in councils’ core spending power on 2024-25. In cash terms, it is a 6.8% increase on 2024-25.