By Jaimie Kaffash
14 October 2010
The majority of the public want spending on social housing to be cut to protect other services, a survey from the Local Government Association has shown.
The study, released today, questioned 1,000 people on their attitudes to local spending cuts. It found that 78% of respondents thought some services should be protected from cuts – a sentiment expressed by Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles yesterday, when he advised councils to resist ‘salami slicing’ budgets.
When it came to areas respondents felt should not be protected, 60% said environmental health officers; 58% cited leisure facilities; and 51% said social housing.
A spokesman for the LGA told Public Finance that changes to the current centralised rent allocation system, the Housing Revenue Account, should mean that there were no cuts to social housing anyway. ‘If the HRA is reformed in the right way, that part of council services should be self-sustaining. Councils will then be allowed to keep the receipts from rents and sales and will be able to use that to improve existing stock and build new stock.’
The survey also showed that when it comes to making decisions on local spending cuts, the public trust councillors more than MPs and civil servants. Some 63% preferred councillors, compared with 17% for MPs and 7% for civil servants.
LGA chair Margaret Eaton said: ‘This opinion poll is a vote of confidence in town halls. People trust their local councillors to make tough decisions about spending in their area more than they trust national politicians. As the democratically elected voice of local people, councils should be at the centre of deciding on spending in their area.’
