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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\u2019s 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>