On the face of it, last week's Budget held little for local government. The good news there was no additional cuts – although the bad news was there is no respite from the financial difficulties facing councils over the next two years.

In an opinion piece for The MJ's website, Local Government Association (LGA) chairman, Sir Merrick Cockell, said: ‘While this Budget has not brought further cuts for local government, the next two years will be the toughest yet for people who rely on council services.

‘By next year, council budgets will have been cut by 40% from the start of this Parliament. As the economy improves, people will increasingly start to question why councils are having to reduce and withdraw from providing the services that underpin people's daily lives.'

As ever, the devil is in the detail, and behind the headlines there were a few implications for the sector in the small print of the Budget document.

Troubled families
George Osborne announced an ‘acceleration' of the Troubled Families programme within the Budget, which will see the scheme expand to take in an extra 40,000 families in 2014-15.

But this is not an expansion. Previously, the Government had announced funding for 400,000 families between 2015-20. As some areas are doing well, a further 40,000 families will be brought on board early – but without extra funding.

It may not be a complete roll-out of community budgets, but the Troubled Families programme is increasingly being linked to ‘public service reform'.