Government spending

IFS Director Paul Johnson writes in The TImes.

Election battleground in the playground?

IFS Director Paul Johnson writes in The Times.

From tomorrow, Scottish residents will for the first time be subject to a different income tax schedule from those resident elsewhere in the UK. This is because of the Scottish parliament’s decision to use recently devolved powers over income tax bands and rates for non-savings and non-dividend income to freeze the higher-rate threshold (the point at which the rate of income tax rises from 20% to 40%) for the new financial year. Doing so exacerbates some existing deficiencies that afflict the tax system throughout the UK, and highlights the continuing need for tax reform.

IFS Director Paul Johnson writes in The Times.

IFS Director Paul Johnson writes in The Times.

This presentation was given at the launch of the IFS Green Budget 2017.

This presentation was given at the launch of the IFS Green Budget 2017.

In yesterday’s English Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, the government announced councils will be able to set a ‘Social Care Precept’ of 3% a year over the next two years, rather than the 2% a year previously planned, to raise additional funds for adult social care. We calculate that yesterday’s announcements could increase the amount available to spend on adult social care by a maximum by £700 million over the next two years relative to previous plans. But they provide no boost to spending beyond that.

Last month, researchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies launched first paper the from a new programme on local government finance. This paper looked at a range of issues including, changes in councils’ spending and revenues over the last seven years, and issues related to the evolving English business rates retention scheme (BRRS). Today, we publish two spreadsheets with information for individual council areas: a spreadsheet showing changes to councils’ spending on services between 2009–10 and 2016–17; and a spreadsheet showing relative gains and losses from the BRRS since it was introduced in 2013–14.