HUGE unanswered questions on the future funding for council services have been raised in the wake of the Queen’s Speech, councillors have warned.

Proposals to allow councils to retain 100 per cent of business rates have been thrown into doubt following their shock omission from yesterday’s state opening of Parliament.

The proposals are worth £26 billion nationwide including an additional £50 million to Brighton and Hove City Council.

In acknowledgement of Prime Minister Theresa May’s failure to strengthen her majority and the amount of Parliamentary and ministerial time likely to be spent on negotiating Brexit, The Queen’s Speech was more notable for what was excluded than what could become legislation in the next two years.

Controversial manifesto pledges to reintroduce grammar schools, the so-called “dementia tax”, means testing winter fuel payment, the end of the pension triple lock and a free vote on fox hunting were all absent.

Also omitted were plans to end free lunches for all primary schoolchildren in their first three years, a move which threatened the future of Sussex start-up success story The Easy Lunch Company.

The Horsham-based company had warned the jobs of up to half its 38 staff could be at risk if the plans went ahead.

Company co-founder Emma Treasure said the apparent ditching of the plans was a “weight off her shoulders” after an “unsettling” month since the pledge was made public.

She said: “The positive to come from this is that there has been much more information put out there revealing what a brilliant thing this is for children to have no matter how much money their parents have.”

Of 27 bills unveiled in Mrs May’s first Queen’s Speech, eight are devoted to Brexit while a civil disaster taskforce, the creation of an independent public advocate for bereaved families, a counter extremism commission and a counter-terror strategy review have been created in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire and string of terror attacks.

Bills have also been proposed to extend the HS2 high-speed rail link, permit the development of driverless cars, spaceports and commercial satellites, cut whiplash insurance claims, protect victims of domestic abuse and ban letting fees for private rented homes. Paul Bonett, boss of Bonett’s Sales and Letting, said property professionals have always wanted “fairness and transparency”.

He said: “Good letting agents do a lot of work to help tenants move into the right property and give them best advice on their rights and responsibilities. This important work should be chargeable as it really does help tenants. The charges made to tenants should be realistic and not onerous.”

On the issue of business rates, Brighton and Hove City Council deputy leader Gill Mitchell said the council could not comment “meaningfully” on the implications without more information.

She added: “As things stand we have a four year financial plan that takes us to 2019/20, with the detailed annual budget considered and approved by full council each February. What happens after that point remains unclear.”