The Local Government Finance Settlement delivered more shock therapy for the big cities of the North and Midlands. There’s little Christmas comfort for England’s most deprived areas
Another pre-festive local government settlement from Eric Pickles; another Christmas crisis for too many town halls. For those councils brave another to publicly challenge the secretary of state – and some big Tory councils are privately in his firing line – today marked bare knuckle politics with a vengeance.
Poor Newcastle. Buffeted by the icy blasts from both the Department for Communities and Local Government and from filthy-rich multi-millionaire Geordie exiles outraged by the prospect of the city axing its arts budget – we live in hope that Sting, Bryan Ferry, et al will dip into their substantial pockets – it really has nowhere to go. As one senior local government figure, with no political axe to grind, noted: ‘They're stuffed, along with Liverpool and Manchester.’
No amount of statistical sleight of hand can disguise the fact that Northern and Midlands cities and metropolitan authorities particularly have been singled out for the Pickles treatment. His figures don't even tell half the story: namely, that Newcastle's 'spending power' of £2,522 per head is £700 more than well-heeled Wokingham in Berkshire, embracing as it does England's richest acres.
Look instead at figures from Newcastle's finance director, Paul Woods, showing Newcastle losing £158 per head by 2014. Wokingham, by marked contrast, loses a mere £4.23!
This has become a deeply ideological struggle between those believing big cities have been spoon-fed for too long and require shock therapy, and others – including some pragmatic Tories – who think Pickles is moving too far, too fast. The secretary of state is no fan of several Tory county councils who have dared question his tactics.
These councils know that the Local Government Association's 2020 scenario of many authorities becoming little more than social care providers, with other services diminished beyond recognition, is no bluff.
Of course some councils can become more efficient. Naturally there's room for improvement. But any liberal democracy – of which we once were – recognises that any equitable funding settlement has to embrace poorer authorities, with low tax bases, high unemployment, and related social ills.
Pickles calls this a 'just' settlement, with its new efficiency support grant. Councils will have to meet its standards, yet to be defined, to qualify for the Pickles version of fairness.
As Graham Allen MP, chair of the constitutional reform select committee noted, this settlement underlines the case for serious talks to give English councils the same freedoms and independence enjoyed by other Western democracies. ‘Even within the nations of the UK, only England remains micro-managed by Whitehall,’ he added.
In opposition, Pickles might have shared this view. No longer.
