Councils struggle to run services under slashed budgets, PA finds

New analysis by the Press Association has found that councils are citing funding by an average of 29 per cent, under new reduced budgets.

The research has identified that local authorities have cut funding for Museums, libraries and leisure centres in England by almost one third, since 2010 with a similar sized fall in spending on transport services and a 40 per cent drop in support for the homeless.

The study used government data to compare the change in council day-to-day expenditure across the decade. After adjustments for inflation were made, the Press Association found that spending on cultural services across England had fallen by just over £1 billion, while spending on environmental services, including public toilets and pest control, had dropped by just over £0.5 billion.

Meanwhile, funding for children and families’ social care had risen by around 16 per cent.

Claire Kober, chair of the LGA resources board, argued: “Councils have increasingly had to do more with less in recent years while trying to protect services, such as caring for the elderly, protecting children and reducing
homelessness, in the face of growing demand.

“Inevitably it has meant having less to spend on many of the other services people value, such as filling potholes and funding leisure facilities like pools, gyms and parks and museums.

“The next few years will continue to be a challenge and more difficult decisions will still have to be made. All councils will have to find further substantial savings from local services to plug funding gaps over the next four years and compensate for the rising cost pressures they face.”

Heather Wakefield, head of local government at Unison, added: “Councils have done their best to protect services and shield communities from the worst of the cuts but that hasn't stopped libraries, youth clubs and children's centres from closing, or charges to local residents from going up.

“Local authority services are at breaking point, and there's no light at the end of the tunnel.”