Only two Yorkshire councils are set to spend beyond budgets this year, research shows
Figures obtained from a BBC investigation has found that Yorkshire councils’ government funding has been axed by more than £900m since 2015.
Research, which was published this morning found local authorities located in the north are set to have their funding cut by £945m. 13 councils in Yorkshire are facing an overspend of almost £193m in 2023-24. One of the main reasons for this is social care costs are swallowing budgets.
In addition, figures from the BBC, which was gathered by the House of Commons Library outlined Yorkshire councils’ combined funding from central government had fallen in real terms from £2.32bn in 2015-16 to £1.37bn in 2023-24.
However, once it was revealed that councils are facing an overspend of £193m, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said public spending was ‘at record levels’.
Against this backdrop, Leeds City Council, which is facing a funding gap of £162.8m over the next four years, has said it is considering ‘every option no matter how unpalatable’ to save money, including making the equivalent of 750 full-time employees redundant, selling off buildings and scrapping services.
As well as Leeds struggling, research also found the City of York Council, which receives one of the lowest funding settlements in the country, has seen its government money cut by more than half from £58.5m in 2015-16 to £28.3m this year.
Currently, only two local authorities in Yorkshire – Hull and North Yorkshire – are not set to spend more money than they have budgeted for this financial year, according to figures published by councils or given to the BBC. Although, both councils have said they will have to find millions to cover funding gaps in future years.
Commenting on the issue, Mr Sunak told the BBC his government ‘announced record funding for the NHS and social care, because that was the number one pressure that local councils were facing.
‘That is contributing to an increase in budgets for local councils. So, on average, they’re going up by just under 10% this year – that’s quite a significant increase.’
Image: Dave Lowe
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