Déchiffrer 2027

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Local authorities, Bruno Retailleau

State grants to local authorities: €10bn of savings required on local authorities’ operating costs

Direction of change: change of another kind, or uncertain direction, compared with current law.

The lever. Sums paid each year by the State to municipalities, départements and regions: amount, distribution, equalisation. Direction rule: ↑ higher grants.

« Une participation à l’effort avec un engagement de maîtrise des dépenses de fonctionnement hors personnel pour les 2 232 collectivités de plus de 10 M€ de budget, avec convergence vers le coût standard de chaque groupe homogène (même strate, mêmes compétences, même richesse fiscale), modulé selon la qualité de gestion. […] 10 Md€ en 2032 sur les seules dépenses de fonctionnement hors personnel et hors prestations sociales, décidées par les collectivités en application du principe constitutionnel de libre administration. »1

Translation by the editorsA contribution to the effort with a commitment to control operating expenditure excluding staff for the 2,232 local authorities with a budget of more than €10m, with convergence towards the standard cost of each homogeneous group (same tier, same competences, same tax wealth), adjusted according to the quality of management. […] €10bn in 2032 on operating expenditure alone excluding staff and excluding social benefits, decided by the local authorities in application of the constitutional principle of free administration.

Encoding

No cost-schedule parameter for this position: see the costing for the reason.

Costing

Announced by the candidate

amount not broken down

Amount announced with no readable annual amount for this position alone: « 10 Md€ en 2032 sur les seules dépenses de fonctionnement hors personnel et hors prestations sociales » [“€10bn in 2032 on operating expenditure alone, excluding staff and excluding social benefits”] of local authorities (press fact sheet no. 12)

Published costings

none

No external costing of this position recorded to date.

Our calculation

not costed

Effort of €10bn on local authorities' operating expenditure excluding staff, decided by them (commitment to restraint, convergence towards a standard cost), with no announced cut in State transfers: nothing to cost under the grants lever.

Current law, sources and limits of the cost schedule

Current law. State financial transfers: €49bn in the LFI 2025 (€45bn of deductions from revenue and €4bn of appropriations from the RCT mission). DGF: €27bn in 2025, compared with €40bn in 2014. In 2026, the regions' DGF is brought back into the budget (−€5.2bn of transferred VAT) and the effort asked of local authorities is about €3bn. The LPFP 2023-2027 provided for transfers of €53bn in 2023 and €56bn in 2027.

Horizon. Full year; to be expressed relative to the extended LPFP (public finance programming act) path.

Limits. An envelope announced in euros (for example €10bn over five years) is costed through the parameter in €bn per year, €1 announced = €1 of State spending, not as a percentage of State transfers to local authorities. An increase in grants worsens the State balance but not necessarily that of general government as a whole, if local authorities save or invest. The scope (with or without transferred VAT) changes the amounts: €49bn to €56bn. Indexation of the communes' DGF (general operating grant) to inflation (option, rule on public bases of 18 October 2026): same common assumption as for the public sector pay index point and pensions, inflation of 1.75% per year at the centre (Cour des comptes), 1.5 to 2.0% for the range, first effect on 1 January 2028, cost in 2032 = cumulative gap of five upratings with the current rule (a DGF set each year in the finance act, which remained at €27.4bn in 2025 and in 2026). Communes' DGF in 2025: €12.8bn (Government); 12.8 × (1.0175^5 − 1) = €1.16bn (12.8 × 7.73% = 0.99; 12.8 × 10.41% = 1.33; editors' calculations, 2025 euros). Reading key: one point of indexation for one year is worth €0.128bn for the communes, €0.27bn for the whole DGF. Inter-municipal bodies, departments and regions are not counted. The DILICO (cyclical smoothing mechanism for local authority revenue: €740m in 2026, paid by the regions, the departments and the inter-municipal bodies, 90% paid back to the contributors in thirds over three years, 10% to the horizontal equalisation funds) places local revenue in reserve and returns it to local authorities: as the whole levy goes back to local authorities, abolishing it costs the State nothing in 2032: if renewed each year, that year's levy is returned in 2032 through the repayments of previous years; if not renewed, it no longer exists (editors' reading).

How to read these amounts. These are static costs and revenues, with no feedback effect, over a full year: nothing on growth, employment or the revenue that economic activity would gain or lose. A higher net cost does not on its own make a worse policy, nor net savings a better one: each programme rests on an economic model (demand-led stimulus, lower compulsory levies, consolidation of the public accounts…) that the cost schedule does not settle. GDP itself measures a volume of activity, not well-being or the usefulness of what is produced. Economic models and feedback effects.

This lever in the method · Costing for Bruno Retailleau

  1. avecretailleau.fr, fiches presse « Rétablir l'ordre dans les comptes publics » (12 octobre 2026), fiche n° 12, p. 14. Open the document at this page.

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