Jon Trickett MP: Local government finance settlement for 2024-25

John Trickett MP writes: Their core spending power is set to increase by £4.5 billion, a 7.5 per cent increase.

Since coming to power in 2010, the Conservatives have cut councils spending power in England by 18.9 per cent. In Wakefield we’ve suffered losses of £76m since 2010, which is 17.5 per cent.

Inflation currently stands at over five per cent, meaning that an increase in funding was necessary just for council funding to remain static. Therefore, the new funding settlement makes minimal difference to local councils who are struggling to keep their heads above water.

The Local Government Association (LGA) conducted a survey in December finding that one in five council leaders and chief executives in England think it is very or fairly likely their Chief Finance Officer will need to issue a Section 114 notice, indicating the council cannot set a balanced budget.

Councils have legal duties to provide numerous vital services for citizens. The Conservatives expect them to deliver these services with significantly fewer resources. Consequently, over half of councils in England have voiced uncertainty about fulfilling their legal duties delivering statutory services next year.

England’s most deprived ten per cent of council authorities (majority in the North) have seen a cut almost three times as high as the richest ten percent of councils. On average the poorest ten per cent of councils have received a 28.3 per cent cut in the last 13 years, whereas the richest ten per cent of councils received a 10.1 per cent cut on average during the same period.

More public spending doesn’t solve every problem, but when councils simply do not have enough money to even deliver the services they are obliged to deliver, more money is one of the only credible solutions.

The LGA stated “The settlement does not provide enough funding to meet the severe cost and demand pressures which have left councils of all political colours and types warning of the serious challenges they face to set balanced budgets next year.”

In addition, the government’s proposals mean that council tax is set to rise nationally by five per cent. They are shifting the burden of council funding onto the public. This is yet another Tory tax rise targeted at working people facing an almighty decline in living standards in recent years.

Summing up 14 years of Tory government, their stewardship has cut public services to the bone to fund tax cuts for society’s richest. Only recently they removed the tax on bankers bonuses, whilst hiking taxes for working people by freezing income thresholds.

They stand for the interests of the super-rich. They stand for economic decline when what’s desperately needed is a new economic settlement for the whole country. Such a settlement must begin with funding local councils properly.

Austerity has led our country down the path of national decline, therefore we must do things differently. This starts with giving local authorities the resources they need to serve the people they represent.