Councils: How to mind the spending gap

Simon Parker, director of the New Local Government Network

The evidence is stark. The Local Government Association estimates that councils face a spending gap of £16.5bn by 2020. Even if we assume that this figure is a little on the alarmist side, the challenge is still huge. At best, the result is likely to mean huge programmes of library, theatre and leisure centre closures, ever tighter restrictions on social care, slashed budgets for housing and capital investment, and thousands more redundancies among public servants.

We know what some parts of the solution might be: integrating services such as health and social care, sharing back office functions, and managing demand more effectively. But they are not enough. My quick, dirty and optimistic estimates suggest that even these huge reforms might close just a third of the spending gap. Councils do have some further tricks up their sleeves, such as charging the public more for some services and reducing the frequency of others, but nothing that can fill a hole of more than £10bn.

The only viable response I can see lies in a combination of political leadership and networked technology...

Read on at Ethos Journal for views from Alex Thomson, chief executive of independent think tank Localis, and James Plunkett, director of policy and development, the Resolution Foundation.

Ethosis aimed at public sector leaders, politicians, academics and policy specialists debating the future of public services today.