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<p>By the end of the Parliament, local government will retain 100% of taxes raised
locally, giving councils control of around an additional £12.5 billion of business
rates to spend on local services. In order to ensure that the reforms are fiscally
neutral, these new powers will come with additional responsibilities, as well as phasing
out some grants from Whitehall. This move towards self-sufficiency and away from dependence
on central government is something councils have long campaigned for. There were over
450 responses to the Government’s summer consultation. My officials are currently
considering all responses and we will publish a summary of the responses and our proposals
for the broad way forward shortly.</p><p>On 13 January 2017 we introduced the Local
Government Finance Bill that will establish the framework for the reformed system.
All relevant documents can be found here: <a href="http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2016-17/localgovernmentfinance.html"
target="_blank">http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2016-17/localgovernmentfinance.html</a>.
We will continue to work closely with local government during the passage of the legislation,
to shape the detail of the reforms.</p>
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