The government is out of touch with the growing crisis in children’s services and social care
Ministers’ local Government funding announcement is a Christmas 'kick in the teeth'.
The Local Government Association (LGA) says a further £1.3bn will be cut in 2019/20 under current plans. This amounts to 36% of their budgets.
By 2020, local authorities will have faced a reduction to core funding from the Government of nearly £16 billion since 2010. That means that councils will have lost 60 pence out of every £1 the Government had provided to spend on local services. Next year, 168 councils will receive no more core central government funding at all.
Ministers have presented councils, who have already seen billions hacked from their budgets since 2010, with a Christmas kick in the teeth. This zombie Government is totally out of touch with the realities communities now face,on top of the impact of losing 60 per cent of national funding for local services by 2020 - with many councils set to lose every penny of Government support.
There is no clarity on how local government will be funded after March 2020, leaving local communities with uncertainty about their future. Ministers have no proper plan as to how growing demand for children’s services and social care will be met. With councils in dire need of funding, this weak and wobbly Government saw it fit to delay this vital announcement and drag out uncertainty as it descended into internal infighting and chaos.
Rehana Azam, GMB National Secretary for Public Services
