Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has confirmed that councils will continue to benefit from the long-term financial certainty of a four-year funding settlement, helping them to plan ahead with confidence.

He also confirmed he is working closely with the Chancellor of the Exchequer to determine how best to provide further support to businesses facing the steepest increases, with further details expected to be set out in the Budget in two weeks.

Mr Javid published individual funding allocations for local authorities for the second year of the historic settlement, with figures largely unchanged from those published a year ago.

It means that over the course of this Parliament, councils will receive more than £200 billion in government funding – ensuring they can deliver the frontline services people value. Councils are also able to use this increased certainty to change the way they work and become more efficient, building on the £508 million savings already delivered across local government.

It also prepares the ground for wider reforms, to ensure councils benefit from 100% business rate retention, giving them the financial autonomy they have long campaigned for. Councils in six areas across the country will start piloting this approach from April, with all councils invited to apply to participate in further pilots from April 2018.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said:

Our historic funding deal, accepted by 97% of councils, offers the financial certainty needed to plan ahead, with more than £200 billion over the course of this Parliament. This includes £7.6 billion dedicated funding and extra flexibility to provide vital adult social care services for the most vulnerable people in our communities.

But local government funding doesn’t just have to be fair for local government. It also has to be fair to the people who provide the funds in the first place, and that includes the millions of hardworking business owners who pay business rates. Working closely with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, we will determine how best to provide further support to businesses facing the steepest increases, with further details expected to be set out in the Budget in two weeks.

Over the next year, I’ll be working with councils across the country as we move towards 100% business rates retention, giving local authorities the financial autonomy they have campaigned for over decades.

Further information

The key elements of the 2017-18 local government financial settlement are:

Adult social care

The Spending Review last year gave councils the opportunity to raise funds to provide dedicated care for the growing elderly population through an adult social care precept on council tax.

Listening to views from councils to provide for elderly and vulnerable citizens, the Communities Secretary confirmed that he will bring forward increases in the adult social care precept. Councils can choose to raise it by 3%, meaning they will have the ability to raise an additional £208 million next financial year.

This comes on top of a new adult social care grant, worth £240 million next year, and an improved Better Care Fund worth up to £1.5 billion so councils can work more closely with the NHS.

It brings total dedicated social care funding to £7.6 billion over the settlement period, with councils receiving more than £200 billion over the course of this Parliament.

Council tax

The Government is committed to keeping council tax down and will maintain referendum principles to protect hard-working tax-payers from rising bills. Council tax in England has fallen by 9% in real terms since 2010 and is expected to be lower in real terms in 2019-20 than it was in 2010-11.

Business rates

As part of the revaluation of business rates to make bills fairer, measures such as transitional relief have been made available to support those seeing increases. However, Government is looking at how best to provide further support to businesses facing the steepest increases. Ministers expect to be in a position to make an announcement at the time of the Budget in two weeks.

100% retention of business rates

To reduce local government’s dependence on central government for funding – long campaigned for by councils – by the end of this Parliament, local government will keep 100% of the income raised locally through business rates. To ensure councils with less business rates do not lose out there will continue to be redistributions between authorities.

The Local Government Finance Bill, currently before Parliament, provides the legislative framework for these reforms. Pilots of these reforms will take place from this April in Liverpool, Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West of England, Cornwall and Greater London. All councils are invited to apply to participate in the pilots from April 2018.

As a sign of the strength of the close bilateral relationship between the UK and South Korea, the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has hosted his South Korean counterpart – Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se – at Lancaster House in London, for annual foreign policy talks covering trade, defence and security.

South Korea is an important strategic partner for the UK, both in Asia and on the world stage. The two ministers reaffirmed the depth of the relationship and the strong commitment to work together on pressing international issues – from collaborating together to counter Daesh, to peacekeeping operations in South Sudan, tackling piracy off the coast of Somalia and enhancing our development cooperation in Africa and other countries.

The Ministers discussed regional and international security, and emphasised the importance of close work with like-minded countries to uphold the rules-based international order. In light of recent North Korean missile tests, the Foreign Secretary reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to working closely with South Korea and other international partners to uphold and enforce sanctions against North Korea as a clear sign that the international community will not stand for their nuclear weapons programme that violates multiple UNSC resolutions.

The talks also included our strong defence relationship, which expanded last year with the first ever deployment of RAF Typhoons to South Korea, our biggest contribution to date at last year’s US and South Korea military exercises, and the intensification of our already close naval partnership. We will build on this momentum this year and look to expand our cooperation in cyber, intelligence and logistics.

The Foreign Secretary also praised the UK- Korea trade relationship, currently worth nearly £11 billion, which continues to go from strength to strength. South Korea is the third largest destination in Asia for UK goods exports, and the UK is South Korea’s fifth largest foreign direct investor.

The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:

South Korea is a very important partner for the UK and our relationship is going from strength to strength. Two trading nations with a global outlook, we have established a trade working group to discuss tackling barriers to market access, trade and investment, with the aim of building on our trade relationship already worth £11 billion.

On the world stage too, we are working together to solve global problems. Foreign Minister Yun and I have discussed the importance of close cooperation on development assistance, both our ongoing peacekeeping operations in South Sudan, and our commitments to Somalia – including the upcoming conference in London.

And on defence and security, the UK stands absolutely united with South Korea and our international partners in condemning the dangerous and provocative behaviour of the North Korean regime, which is a clear threat to regional and international stability.

Further information

22 February 2017 – A new grant from the Government of Japan will allow the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to help reduce cholera-related morbidity and mortality in Haiti in 2017 and 2018, the UN agency said in a news release.

“With this gift from the Japanese people, we will strengthen the axes of the fight against cholera in the protection of the Haitian population, especially children,” said Marc Vincent, UNICEF Representative in Haiti, welcoming the contribution.

“Japan is a key partner and we thank the Japanese people for their continued support,” he added.

Haiti has been dealing with a cholera outbreak since October 2010, some nine months after it suffered a devastating earthquake. The outbreak has affected an estimated 788,000 people and claimed the lives of more than 9,000. Concerted national and international efforts, backed by the United Nations, have resulted in a 90 per cent reduction in the number of suspected cases.

The $2.6 million grant (nearly 300 million Japanese yen) will help strengthen the island nation’s epidemiological coordination and surveillance; and support conducting timely surveys, rapid response teams and case management, as well as improving and increasing awareness of cholera-related hygiene.

According to UNICEF, the cholera epidemic in Haiti continues to be the largest in the western hemisphere. More than 41,000 suspected cases of cholera have been reported throughout Haiti in 2016.

With the new funds, interventions will be implemented across the island nation with an emphasis on the cholera-prone departments of Center, North, West, Grand’Anse, Sud (South), and Artibonite.

Two of these departments – Grand’Anse and Sud – were where Hurricane Matthew made landfall in early October, inflicting much devastation as it cut a path of destruction though country.

In the news release, the Ambassador of Japan to Haiti, Yoshiaki Hatta, said that the grant had been decided upon a resurgence in suspected cholera cases resulting from the deterioration of the sanitary and hygiene situation caused by rainy seasons or natural disasters.

Japan considers that this issue should be addressed in collaboration with the Government of Haiti and the international community, the Ambassador added, expressing appreciation for UNICEF, and calling on all stakeholders to strengthen their collaboration in the fight against cholera.

Meanwhile, a Multi Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) for the UN Haiti Cholera Response has been set up to enable Member States, other partners and individuals (including UN staff) to contribute. To date, it has received funds from five Member States: Chile ($250,000); France ($638,000); India ($100,000); Republic of Korea ($1 million); and Liechtenstein ($50,000).

As for other resources provided outside of the Trust Fund, Canada has made a $4,600,000 parallel contribution in support of the UN Haiti Cholera Response – with some of the funds going to UNICEF & PAHO.