CSR

So now the cat is out of the bag – some tough times ahead for local government if you read between the headlines. Still an overview of the CSR as a whole suggests:

• A 56% cut in local authority grants from central government, alongside new powers for councils to raise their own money from business rates and a special 2% precept to pay for social care.
• Raising an extra £1bn a year by 2020 from a new 3% stamp duty charge on buy-to-let properties and second homes.
• An end to grants for student nurses, who must now pay for their own training with the help of loans. The cap on recruitment of student nurses will be lifted.
• Higher student loan repayments for people who have graduated since 2012 and will have to pay about £300 a year more.
• A £15m boost for women’s charities to be paid for from the so-called “tampon tax” – the VAT levied on sanitary products.
• A cap on housing benefit rates in the social housing sector, limiting them to the same rate as private-sector housing benefit rates.
• A 19% cut in state funding for opposition parties.
• An overhaul of schools funding to even out regional variations and cuts to the further education budget that will mean funding per student for 16- to 19-year-olds in sixth forms and colleges is cut by 9.4% by 2020.

Overall, Osborne said the £12bn of cuts to government departments would help move Britain “out of the red and into the black”. He promised that efficiency savings and changes in the way Britain is governed would allow the Treasury to continue investing in protected areas including health and education.