Wednesday’s Autumn Statement was full of bold headline figures, but already we can see that all is not as good as it may initially seem, according to local Liberal Democrats.
Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst (Central Watford and Oxhey), Leader of the Opposition on Hertfordshire County Council said, “This is a politically clever statement that may at first look appeal to the person on the street, but we can already see several significant problems in it.
“Much as I welcome a £50 million a year pothole fund, if spread over the same 148 highways authorities as last year, it is not nearly enough to address the estimated £12 billion backlog of road repairs.
“Equally, cuts to public health may seem innocuous to some, but reductions to the public health budget will have a significant negative impact on the essential prevention and early intervention services provided by the County Council. Given that much of the local government public health budget pays for NHS services, including sexual health, drug and alcohol treatment and health checks, this is a reduction to the NHS in all but name and will put extra pressure on services.’
Stephen continued:
“The Chancellor also announced plans to devolve more power to local authorities, principally metropolitan authorities in the North of England. I am delighted to see that local decisions will be taken nearer the ground there but am angry that we in Hertfordshire will not be allowed to do that too. With devolution of powers to Scotland, Wales, and apparently now the North of England why do we still have less say in how our local area operates?
“This is a complex announcement that is still being analysed by Local Authorities and experts across the Country. Our first impression is that the cuts are too deep and too fast, and that this will not serve the best interests of the people of Hertfordshire.”
Detailed analysis and comment
Yesterday, (25th November 2015) George Osborne presented the results of his spending review to Parliament. It was wide-ranging and affects almost every part of Government expenditure. The effect on Hertfordshire County Council and district councils across Hertfordshire does not look positive. This is one of the most complex revisions to government spending undertaken and full figures are not yet available.
He announced a reduction of 24 percent in central government funding for local government over the Spending Review period, in our area that would mean further cuts to local services, council tax increases or possibly both. In cash terms the loss of funding is approximately £4.1 billion, and comes on top of £10 billion of cost pressures councils have already identified for the rest of the decade.
Comment: Liberal Democrats are clear that all public services must use council taxpayers’ money effectively and cut excess and waste, but this is a cut too far.
The Spending review included an announcement to give councils further flexibility to raise council tax by up to 2 per cent above the current limits to fund the crisis in social care.
Comment: Much as we recognise the need for extra social care funding we do not believe that slashing central Government support and increasing council tax is the correct solution.
The Budget included provision for capital assets to be sold and the receipts used to support revenue expenditure.
Comment: This is not a long-term, sustainable solution and will inevitably lead to the loss of some Council owned facilities.
The Local Government Association is of the view that: ‘Even if councils stopped filling in potholes, maintaining parks, closed all children’s centres, libraries, museums, leisure centres and turned off every street light they will not have saved enough money to plug the financial black hole they face by 2020. These local services which people cherish will have to be drastically scaled back or lost altogether as councils are increasingly forced to do more with less and 5 protect life and death services, such as caring for older and disabled people and protecting children, already buckling under growing demand.’
There were further promises about Local Authorities being allowed to retain 100% of business rates, which could help support the shortfalls resulting from other cuts, but there is no detail about this and what support there may be in areas that currently received lower levels of business rates but shall still suffer the 24 percent cut in funding.