Please see attached/linked three briefings we hope you’ll find useful in response to the autumn statement:
1. The LGA’s on the day briefing covering all the local government related measures and the LGA’s view. The most important of these being that there are no additional cuts for local government as some had feared.
2. Autumn Statement key points which pulls together various measures in the autumn statement that you might want to highlight in your local campaigning.
3. National Infrastructure Projects which covers all the capital investment programmes that have been trailed in the media over the last week.
In addition, there was one little-noticed measure in the statement that will be welcomed by many of you…
2.61 Tax exemption for travel expenses of members of local authorities – The government will exempt from Income Tax and employee NICs travel expenses paid to councillors by their local authority. The exemption will be limited to the Approved Mileage Allowance Payment (AMAP) rates where it applies to mileage payments. This change will take effect from 6 April 2015.
This is of course the small win that we achieved in the discussions over councillor pensions and does at least bring a measure of consistency to the government’s approach. It had been made public before but now it has been formally announced in the statement.
Files:
LGA On-the-Day Briefing (PDF)
LGA Lib Dems Autumn Statement Briefing (MS Word)
National Infrastructure Project Briefing (MS Word)