Auditors’ warning over council cuts
The phrase – “Tell me something I don’t know…..” comes to mind. This article tells us:
The government only has a “limited understanding” of the impact of budget cuts on local authorities in England, a public spending watchdog says.
Some councils were showing “clear signs of financial stress”, but many had “coped well” with cuts, said the National Audit Office. The Local Government Association has warned services would “buckle under the strain” of more cuts. Most local authority funding comes from central government, with about a quarter raised through council tax. By 2016, government funding will have dropped in real terms by 37% since 2010, the National Audit Office said. Auditors are “increasingly concerned” about councils’ ability to make more savings, the report said, with over half of authorities responsible for education and social care not well placed to provide the services they hope to over the next three to five years.
The report said there were “significant differences” in the size of budget cuts faced by different council areas, with those that depend most on government grants the hardest hit.
It also said the Department for Communities and Local Government did not monitor the impact of spending cuts “in a co-ordinated way”, instead relying on other departments for alerts.
As a result, it said, the government risked finding out about serious problems “only after they have occurred”.