The cuts to local government budgets announced in today's Spending Review are huge and unprecedented. They will fundamentally alter the way that councils work and the work that they do.
Many people in local government will feel gloomy today because of the impact on services, communities and jobs, but tomorrow we have to roll up our sleeves and work out how we are going to do the best in incredibly challenging circumstances.
This is a big leadership challenge for councillors in particular, to get the most out of local authorities, pull together other local services, and get the community involved in making tough choices, and in developing new local voluntary and community effort and enterprise.
LGiU expects the government to confirm today that there will be new community budget pilots, following on from the last government’s Total Place initiative. This is a silver lining in the Spending Review, because we know that services can be improved, and better outcomes achieved, with less resources, if we get the local public sector working together better. The LGiU would urge every area to take this kind of approach whether they are a pilot or not.
Over the next few weeks and months we will get a clearer picture of the overall impact of the spending review on local services. On the positive side, the chancellor has announced that there will be a £1bn regional growth fund and £1bn more each year from 2014 for social care. These will help with regeneration and with supporting and ageing population.
On the cuts side, Supporting People funding, and funding for specialist schools, look to have been hit. These services are not the kind of thing that councils can or should stop doing. On the other hand, clearly there are things that councils will have to cut back on. The end of ringfencing is very welcome and important because it increases councils flexiblity to direct resources to local needs and priorities.
Andy Sawford is chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit
