Council Leader John Kent has said his pessimism over getting business rates from central government was "well-founded" following the Chancellor's Autumn Statement.

Mr Kent said the 'devil is in the detail' of proposals announced in the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Autumn Statement.

Speaking at full council last Wednesday, the same day as George Osborne’s statement, Mr Kent said: “Obviously the devil will be in the detail as is always the case in such situations.”

He said: “It has become increasingly clear, for example, that our pessimism over getting all the business rates was well founded.

"The Chancellor has basically said local government as a whole will eventually get all the business rates and that will be used to off-set grant cuts further down the road.

“It absolutely does not mean Thurrock will hold on to the over £50 million in business rates we collect and then give to government … quite the contrary.

“Much of our business rates will go to prop up those leafy councils like Brentwood which don’t collect much national non-domestic rates, or the counties, like Essex, that collect no business rates at all.”

He added: “Then there’s the two per cent adult social care precept – again the devil is in the detail.

"The presumption is that this will be in addition to any council tax rise ceiling imposed by the government.

“If we presume that ceiling is 1.99 per cent again, that means a maximum council tax rise of 3.99 per cent.

"At £½ million for every one per cent that’s a maximum of approximately £2 million to counter the £10 million cut in grant we are expecting in April.”

Mr Kent explained: “If half of that - £1 million - has to be devoted to adult social care it is worth noting that will not cover the £1½ million extra cost of funding the Living Wage for carers, let alone the £1 million-plus extra pressures on the service and the planned £750,000 reduction in budget on top of all that.”

He added that the planned apprenticeship levy is likely to cost Thurrock around £300,000.

To conclude, Cllr Kent said: “A little bit of good news. I’m sure we’re all really pleased the Chancellor announced a National College for Creative and Cultural Industries will be based here, unfortunately he said in Essex, not in Thurrock, but nonetheless, congratulations to them all and we should all welcome this endorsement of our role as a world class centre of high level creative industries and creative and cultural enterprises. “As I said earlier: the devil’s in the detail and we’ll have to wait and see exactly what the Chancellor is proposing now and next month.”