Brexit; Public Spending Targets

I fear this story may be amongst a number leading into a challenging autumn settlement for rural authorities. It tells us:

The improvement in the public finances continued to undershoot expectations in August, further undermining the Government’s hopes of reducing the deficit on its original planned timetable.

The Office for National Statistics reported public spending exceeded taxes by £10.5bn last month.

That was better than the £11.5bn deficit recorded in August last year, but slightly worse than the £10bn City of London analysts had pencilled in – and it still leaves the Government well adrift from the £55.5bn borrowing target for 2016-17 set in the March Budget.

So far this financial year the Government has already borrowed £33.8bn, leaving just £21.7bn leeway over the next 7 months at a time when the economy is widely expected to slow due to the impact of the Brexit vote.