Summer Budget: LGA response

9 Jul 2015 11:17 AM

Read Gary Porter, Chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA) on yesterday’s Budget announcement.

"It is right that the Chancellor has not used his Summer Budget to further reduce in-year local government funding. Councils already have to find £2.5 billion in savings this financial year and these are proving the most difficult savings to find yet.

"Councils will now be looking to the Spending Review in the autumn which will decide the future of our public services over the next decade.

"It is likely to see councils continue to face challenging funding reductions and spending pressures over the next few years. Government's goal should be to see how overall public money can be spent smarter and more efficiently.

"Without reform of the way public services are paid for and delivered, we predict councils could face a further £3.3 billion reduction in central government funding for local services in 2016/17 and a funding gap of £9.5 billion by the end of the decade.

"This will add pressure on vital services with many councils forced to make tough decisions, for example whether to close a children's centre to keep looking after vulnerable elderly people, or whether to switch off street lights to fix potholes in local roads.

"We have set out how radically devolving powers and funding to local areas will allow councils to protect and improve vital services, tackle the big issues facing our residents and boost the prospects of the nation. Without this, the Government's aims to boost housebuilding, abolish youth unemployment and find £12 billion of savings from working-age benefits cannot be achieved."

Notes

  1. The LGA will also be responding to various separate Budget announcements throughout the afternoon
    .
  2. At last week's LGA Annual Conference, we launched our new report ‘A Shared Commitment: Local Government and the Spending Review'. It sets out how the Government can ensure local services survive the next few years.
     
  3. LGA analysis predicts councils face a £3.3 billion funding cut in 2016/17, equivalent to 12 per cent of their total budgets.
     
  4. The LGA has launched a Future Funding interactive tool tracking the changes in spending between 2010/11 and 2013/14 on the services councils provide on a daily basis. Findings include:
    • Spending on sports and leisure services decreased by 15 per cent
    • Spending on road repairs decreased by 17 per cent
    • Spending on parks decreased by 10 per cent
    • Spending on care for vulnerable working age adults and children and families services both increased by 1 per cent.