To ask His Majesty's Government whether the fiscal devolution roadmap, to be published alongside the Autumn Budget, will include a weighting for rural sparsity and remoteness within the arrangements for the retention of business rates and income tax by strategic authorities; and whether those arrangements will provide for a minimum level of fiscal capacity below which no authority will fall.
The government is committed to supporting local leaders to drive growth and improve public services.
In the Cabinet Statement on ‘Rewiring the State’ the government committed to replace grants from central government with a share of local income tax for every mayor beginning in 2028, such that where a region grows its tax base, it benefits from the increased receipts. This will sit alongside greater retention of the revenue from business rates for local councils and strategic authorities.
At the Budget, the government will publish a roadmap setting out further detail on the design of fiscal devolution, and we will use the upcoming Spending Review to confirm the detailed arrangements for assigned income tax.
Answered on 28 Sep 2026