The civil service has been protected from the brunt of the government’s spending cuts and as a result is making little effort to reform, councils are claiming.
The Local Government Association says funding for local authorities has been cut by 28% compared with only 8% for Whitehall departments.In addition, just 33,000 of the 240,000 jobs lost in the public sector last year were from the civil service against 145,000 from local government, the LGA says.
It also criticises Whitehall departments for missing a quarter of their reform targets, adding that despite the ‘bonfire of the quangos’, there is still much duplication and overlap among central government agencies.
LGA chair Sir Merrick Cockell said councils were ‘outperforming the rest of Whitehall, despite the challenging financial situation’.
He added: ‘Whitehall now needs to turn the savings spotlight on itself, rather than offloading any further funding cuts on to councils, which could impact upon frontline services.’
The LGA’s criticisms come as it publishes research on actions councils are taking to deal with funding cuts.
A total of 219 councils are sharing services in areas such as procurement, waste management and IT. The report highlights the tri-boroughapproach being taken by Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington& Chelsea councils in west London. These councils are merging a variety of services, including social services and corporate functions. This is expected to yield savings of £33m a year by 2015.
