Concerns over the levels of ‘set aside' – the amount of surplus local rates retained by the Treasury to prevent councils exceeding their spending limits - were expressed at the Local Government Association (LGA) executive meeting held on 13 October.

According to an LGA briefing paper on the Local Government Resource Review (LGRR), the amount of business rates ‘set aside' is projected to rise from £1.1bn in 2013/14 to as much as £3.5bn by 2014/15. That would hand the Treasury a sizable slice of soon-to-be-devolved business rates revenues – and the benefit, courtesy of higher inflation, of additional yield without compensating councils.