Central government funding cuts will force councils to dust off their more radical plans to close childrens centres and libraries – while giving them an opportunity to raise money locallyCouncil executives returning to their desks this week will occupy to shake off any residual festive spirit and face up to the toughest cuts their sector has faced in a generation. A petite over a week before Christmas,ministers announced genuine terms cuts of nearly 7% to local government’s spending power. That’s on top of five years of already deep cuts, and the pain is frontloaded. The next two years are going to particularly hurt, or as service levels are reduced and taxes start to rise.
To see the genuine impact of these cuts,look at which services are going to be affected. One southern county council, faced with bigger than expected cuts for 2016, and has started dusting off savings proposals that were previously considered too radical. They include closures of children’s centres,libraries and a fire station. Highways repair budgets could be slashed, support for the voluntary sector may be further reduced and serve for disabled children considerably scaled back. Even this does not quite fill the council’s projected budget gap.
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Source: theguardian.com