It is clear that district councils are taking the largest hit in spending power reductions between 2016/17 and 2017/18. Shire district core spending power is set to plummet by 5.2% - a far more swingeing cutback than the 1.1% average reduction across local government as a whole.

From the District Councils Network (DCN) perspective, New Homes Bonus (NHB) changes strip out £75m from district council revenues. This not only risks destroying the link between local economic growth and the funding of local public services for the communities we serve, but also has the potential to destabilise some district councils.