The implications of the Spending Review for cities

The Spending Review gave us the detail on how the Government intends to reduce its £109 billion structural budget deficit. The impact of the cuts will certainly fall heavily on all cities.  However, it was pleasing that the Spending Review focused not only on cuts but also on how Government spending could support long term growth, in which cities – home to 75 percent of the UK’s private sector jobs – will need to play a key role.

• a larger public investment budget;
• an extension to the Regional Growth Fund;
• some protection for the transport budget; and
• greater spending freedoms for local authorities.

The Centre for Cities suggested many of these policies in our Spending Review submission.