English councils to face 1.8% cut in spending power

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The government have announced the council funding grants for 2015-16 on Thursday and indicated that English councils will face an average cut of 1.8% in their overall spending power.

The local government minister, Kris Hopkins has said the settlement for 2015-16 was “fair for all parts of the country – North and South, rural and urban, city and shire” with no authority seeing a cut of more than 6.4% in their spending power in 2015/16, which is the lowest level of maximum reduction in this parliament..

Mr Hopkins has said that every council should be able to deliver the necessary savings while protecting frontline services. He has announced £275 million in Government funding to help town halls freeze council tax and urged every authority to take up the offer.

Local councils in England have previously been warned over the expected average cuts of 1.8%. But the Local Government Association have told that the cut in central government grants amounted to 8.8%, and warned that town halls will be forced to consider cutting services as they slice an estimated £2.6 billion off their budgets for 2015/16.

Surrey County Council leader David Hodge said: “The reality for Surrey is we are facing significant demands on school places and on adult social care and children’s services.

“When we have taken 40% out of our budget, it is extremely difficult to continue to do that.”

However, Shadow communities secretary Hilary Benn has said: “Instead of a fairer settlement the Government has hit the communities with the most need the hardest, and instead of giving councils the long-term budgets and freedoms they need to make real long-term sustainable savings, the libraries that enrich our children’s education, the social care for our elderly to keep them healthy and out of hospital and the everyday council services like bin collections and street cleaning are bearing the brunt.”

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