More than half of councils in England plan service spending cuts

More than half of councils in England say they are cutting spending on services in 2023/24, with one in five admitting to planning frontline cuts the public will notice, according to a survey of council officials.

According to figures from the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU), based on responses from 138 councils, 52% of respondents said their council would be cutting spending on services. 20% said their budget would lead to cuts in frontline services that would be evident to the public.

12 councils said there was a danger that spending constraints could endanger their ability to deliver the statutory duties they are legally required to fulfil.

The survey findings come as councils struggle with a combination of rising inflation, the impact of the pandemic, and more than a decade of austerity that was targeted at local government. Numerous councils have effectively gone bankrupt since the financial collapse of Northamptonshire council five years ago.

According to the LGIU, a local government membership body and think tank, only 14% of senior council figures have confidence in the sustainability of council finances. In order to set balanced budgets – a legal requirement for councils – more than 90% of councils are raising council tax or increasing fees and charges.

More than half of all councils are raiding their financial reserves both this year and next year, which the LGIU described as ‘a completely unsustainable situation’.

Adult social care, housing and homelessness and children’s services were the greatest pressures on council finances.

‘Despite repeated promises from central government we have seen no reform of local government finance and no return to multi-year funding. Instead there has been a disjointed series of one-year settlements predicated on local authorities raising council tax by the highest amount permitted,’ wrote LGIU chief executive Jonathan Carr-West.

‘But even with these tax rises, councils have to cut services, borrow more money and dip into their reserves year after year.

‘Citizens across the country are failed in three ways: their bills rise, their services are cut and the councils they rely on edge ever closer to financial ruin.’

He said councils needed greater fiscal devolution to ‘let them succeed where central government has comprehensively failed’.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema