Local councils face £14.4bn short fall in funding

GMB, the union for local government staff, commented on a press release from Local Government Association on updating its Funding Outlook Report. See notes to editors for copy of the release.

Brian Strutton, GMB National Secretary, said:

"The Local Government Association has now put a £14.4bn figure on the death spiral of insufficient funding that councils face as a result of this coalition government's policies.

This bears out GMB's prediction that in addition to 420,000 lost council jobs since 2010 we could be facing another 70,000 over the next year which will heap tragedy on top of misery.

There are four things that could be done.

Firstly, councils need to defy government and raise council tax - they can't complain of lack of funding if they don't.

Secondly, government has to recognise that the rising adult social care bill, the main cause of runaway costs for councils, cannot be met any other way than through direct taxation.

Thirdly, local and central government should stop wasting resources trying to eke insignificant savings out of basic front line services that are working perfectly well.

Fourthly, we need to be more honest with the public about the state of their local councils and if , as the chair of the LGA said yesterday, there are 56 councils whose finances are unsustainable they should be named so that their communities can stand up for them like they do for their local NHS.”