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Cllr Richard Watts, Chair of the LGA’s Resources Board responds to the report by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee on the future of high streets.

If we truly value our local services then we have to be prepared to pay for them. Fully funding councils is the only way they will be able to keep providing the services which make a difference to people’s lives, such as caring for older and disabled people, protecting children, building homes, fixing roads and collecting bins. 

We must not forget that it is individuals and communities who feel the impact, whether it is through seeing their local library or leisure centre close, roads deteriorate or support for young people, families and vulnerable adults scaled back.

Councils continue to face huge uncertainty about how they will pay for local services into the next decade and beyond.

Local government in England faces an overall funding gap of almost £8 billion by 2025.  As these figures show, councils are increasingly having to divert money from other services to meet an unprecedented surge in demand for children’s and adult social care.

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

"Those affected will be pleased that the Government is taking steps to address this issue next year. The LGA will be encouraging all our member councils to respond to this consultation. "

Only with the right funding and powers can councils continue to make a difference to people’s lives by building desperately-needed homes, creating jobs and school places, filling potholes, maintaining parks and green spaces, running children’s centres, leisure centres and libraries, caring for elderly and disabled people and protecting children.

The additional one-off social care funding announced today is a temporary measure and needs to be compared against an annual social care funding gap of £2.3 billion by 2020.

“Years of unprecedented central government funding cuts have left many councils beyond the point where council tax income can be expected to plug the growing funding gaps they face."