Croydon Council is hoping the Chancellor gives the green light to its plea for devolved powers in his autumn statement today.

It is pushing for powers to give it the ability to collect locally generated taxes on all developments.

The council says tax powers focussed on a ring-fenced town-centre "growth zone" would help funnel £5.25bn into the local economy by 2031, creating 8,300 new homes and 23,600 new jobs.

Croydon Council goes to Parliament to push case for devolution

Council bosses call on the Chancellor to give Croydon more powers

And writing in the Evening Standard yesterday George Osborne seemed to be hinting that he supported the plan as he said: “We’re supporting the Barking Riverside development with plans to extend the London Overground.

“We’re supporting local Conservative MPs in developing a serious analysis of the costs and timescales for the regeneration of Brent Cross.

“And we’re starting the same process with Croydon, where I’m working with local MP Gavin Barwell on a plan for a Growth Zone to boost homes and jobs.”

Your Local Guardian: Chancellor George Osborne at 11 Downing Street

In his final autumn statement before the general election, the Chancellor is expected to be able to boast that UK plc is creating jobs and growing faster than any other G7 power.

But the latest forecasts are also likely to indicate that the Government's deficit could actually rise this year amid stalling tax receipts.

Instead of balancing the books by the end of the parliament as he originally promised, experts believe the gap between income and outgoings is on track to be more than £90 billion.

The figures will set the stage for a high-stakes political showdown between Mr Osborne and Labour counterpart Ed Balls, who will seek to regain the initiative on the economy by claiming the recovery is only benefiting the wealthy.

Tory big beast Ken Clarke has risked providing the shadow chancellor with more ammunition by conceding Britain would now be in a "bad way" if the coalition had pushed ahead "full steam" with deficit reduction.

He also appeared to question whether Mr Osborne would be able to hit the new target of achieving balance by 2017-18 and said the Conservatives should not "shut out" the prospect of tax rises.

Among the measures expected to be announced in the Autumn Statement are:

  1. Funding and guarantees to unlock around £1 billion in investment for small and medium sized businesses, and an extension of the Funding for Lending scheme specifically focusing on smaller firms.
  2. A review of business rates to remove 'roadblocks' to growth.
  3. Plans for the Government to directly commission housebuilding on public land for the first time in more than 40 years.
  4. Using fines paid by banks for manipulating Libor to help Ghurka veterans.
     

Ministers have already heavily trailed a multi-billion pound infrastructure drive - including a tunnel under Stonehenge and bolstering flooding defences.

Mr Osborne has also indicated that £2.5 billion will be allocated to ease pressure on the NHS, although there are disputes over how much is new money.

But the wider fiscal position could overshadow much of the detail in Mr Osborne's package. Experts believe the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will raise its prediction for UK growth this year to over 3 per cent, from 2.7 per cent.

But revenues from tax revenues have been running below forecasts, with speculation that many of the new jobs being generated are low paid or part time, and a slowdown in the housing market hitting stamp duty income.

Public Sector Net Borrowing (PSNB) for this year could be revised to £95 billion, although there are suggestions that a bumper season for self-assessment tax returns in the New Year could recover some of the lost ground.

In 2010 the OBR predicted it would be running at around £40 billion by now.

Mr Osborne is bound to face questions from both the political right and left about whether he can meet promises to eradicate the deficit by 2018 - and deliver billions of pounds worth of tax cuts by 2020.

Both he and David Cameron have come under fire for playing down the scale of the public spending cuts needed after the election - with respected think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) suggesting the fiscal consolidation is only halfway to completion.

Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander yesterday argued that the further tightening required would be "smallish".

However, while Mr Osborne has said he wants to eradicate the rest of the deficit through spending curbs alone, the Lib Dems have made clear they would push for tax rises to take some of the strain.

Former chancellor Mr Clarke told the BBC's Newsnight that the Government's original plan of eradicating the deficit by May 2015 would have left the country "in a bad way".

"We had a target of getting rid of the deficit in this parliament. I actually think that although it perhaps wasn't entirely planned it was very sensible that we didn't do it that quickly," Mr Clarke said.

"Had we tried ... getting rid of the whole deficit, 'let's charge ahead', we would not be in the state we are. We would be in a bad way."

Mr Clarke, who recently stepped down from the Cabinet, said the 2017-18 deadline was a "legitimate target" but should not be immovable.