Responding to the report on public sector finances by the Office for National Statistics, Cllr Richard Watts, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Resources Board, said:
“Councils and their staff have strained every sinew to support local communities and economies through years of austerity. If public finances have improved, it is vital that the Government addresses the growing funding gaps facing our local services. Investing in local government will boost economic growth, reduce demand for services and save money for the taxpayer and others part of the public sector, such as the NHS.
“Local government in England faces an overall funding gap of almost £8 billion by 2025 just to maintain services at current levels.
“Councils have shouldered more than their fair share of austerity and have tried to reduce any impact on residents, but there is only so much they can do and the financial challenges they face are growing. More and more councils are struggling to balance their books and others are considering whether they have the funding to even deliver their statutory requirements.”
- By 2020, local authorities will have faced a reduction to core funding from the Government of nearly £16 billion since 2010. That means that councils will have lost 60 pence out of every £1 the Government had provided to spend on local services. Next year, 168 councils will receive no more core central government funding at all.
- Read our latest report on local government funding
Moving the conversation on
We have published a series of papers, commissioned by LGA boards, which start the new thinking around building the case for long term, sustained investment in local government as well as laying out the positive outcomes this would deliver for the country.