Local government services most likely to suffer from reductions in central government funding are mainly used by women, the director of the Women’s Budget Group Mary-Ann Stephenson says.
As the opportunity for efficiency savings dwindles, experts call on government to be explicit about the cost of public services. Dominic Brady reports.
Austerity is not over for older and disabled people as a survey reveals the strain on council adult social care budgets, an umbrella group has claimed.
The disconnect between the rhetoric of ‘ending austerity’ and current spending plans will make next year’s Spending Review harder than it needs to be, argues the IfG’s Graham Atkins.
The chancellor managed to ease the squeeze on the public sector with his Budget on Monday but he dodged the tough decisions needed to come up with long-term solutions for funding services, says the...
The chancellor told the Commons austerity is “coming to an end” today, announcing funding boosts for the Ministry of Defence to the tune of £1bn and adult social care of £650m.
The end of austerity is unlikely to happen any time soon without tax increases - but what would be helpful is an overhaul of the current spending review framework, says CIPFA’s Alan Bermingham.
Devolution offers a solution to mitigate local government’s powers being stripped back to ‘core offers’ focused on social care but it needs funding to do so, says IPPR North’s Anna Round.
Public services will have to receive £19bn a year for the next five years if austerity is to end as the prime minster recently promised, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Fiscal devolution and a reconfiguration of political economy in localities will become the battleground of domestic policy in the post-Brexit general election, argues Jonathan Werran.
Theresa May’s speech to the Conservative Party Conference yesterday showed more political will to bring a close to austerity rather than an actual end, writes Resolution Foundation director...
The cap on how much councils can borrow against their housing revenue account will be scrapped and austerity brought to an end, Theresa May announced in her speech to the Conservative Party...
Mark Drakeford, Welsh cabinet secretary for finance and local government, talks exclusively to PF about taxes, budget setting and why austerity is a failed policy.
Tax rises or looser fiscal plans would be needed before chancellor Philip Hammond could remove the public sector pay cap, unfreeze benefits and undo planned spending cuts, the Resolution...
Finance ministers from the UK’s three devolved administrations have issued a joint warning that UK government plans will cut spending “too fast and too far” and present a risk to...
Charities’ critics want to curb their campaigning and make the sector pick up the pieces as the state withdraws from service provision. Not quite the Big Society vision it had in mind
