Birmingham Council Facing Severe Financial Crisis

Councils and Local Authorities In the News

One of the main ways that councils can cope in the longer term is to try and invest: Local authorities should invest in and develop projects, which will generate some form of revenue stream, independent of central government, in the medium to long term.

Liverpool has not been faring particularly well: Mayor Joe Anderson said a few weeks ago that if current trends continue then the city will be in a grave financial position. To help get the message across, the city created a budget simulator to illustrate how difficult it is to create a budget while reducing spending across a range of services.

 

Can local government ever truly be free? Under the current system, there will always be someone that ultimately sets the criteria under which centralised funding is distributed.

I and others have mentioned here councils breaking free, alternative funding mechanisms, collaboration with other public and private partners (including other councils), etc as a way of taking on the challenge.

What can be done about divergences between poorer and richer authorities? We need to do more than tell government what is wrong: we need to send a clear message about how they can put it right.

The impact of austerity on deprived communities is worrying: Neighbourhoods that turned themselves round will slide back; neighbourhoods that were just coping will not be able to any more; and some areas, that never lifted themselves out of recession – even in the good times - will become yet more desperate. It's not a pretty picture.

We've done a lot of work on neighbourhood-based working: For example, our Bradford Working in Neighbourhoods report. This showed how Bradford is working with the community and voluntary sector across a large district with five constituencies. The impact everywhere of public spending cuts (Newcastle, Birmingham, York, for example) has been to reduce or even completely remove local authorities neighbourhood based staff. As a result, councils everywhere are responding by moving from delivery to co-production modes. The Bradford report listed above – by Liz Richardson of Manchester University - has masses of practical examples.

What deprived communities need is growth: Councils are working with the voluntary sector to support residents in these difficult times. They are promoting food banks and signposting residents to credit unions for financial advice. Such areas are yet to see any benefits from the growth in the national economy.

The issue is about fairness of distribution: Government grant funding must still be based on needs and the ability of individual authorities to raise income locally through council tax and business rates to ensure that the distribution does not disproportionately impact on the most deprived communities.

We need serious efforts to regenerate areas affected by industrial decline: If the government aims for every authority to be self financing out of its local business rates and council tax, then we need to see serious efforts to regenerate areas affected by industrial decline.

One of the emerging consequences of the cuts is that local authorities in deprived areas have no capacity to borrow for the investment that might achieve this.

Why does redistribution between different areas have to come from central taxation? The present system, despite the recent changes in terms of business rate retention, doesn't do a great deal to incentivise local areas to grow their means of local financing in order that, over time, they require less central support.

Oldham and Greater Manchester have done interesting work onpublic service reform: We are focusing on drivers of demand – in terms of behaviour, expectations and need. But we're also tackling the point that return on investment doesn't always fall to those who make the investment. Schools benefit from investment in early years that means children are ready to learn; health services benefit from reductions in fuel poverty.

 

The Local Government Association has suggested an independent body: This should be explored. The current system has essentially frozen the calculation of what a council needs to spend and the resources it has to meet that spending up to 2020. This is the first time since the Local Government Act of 1929 that we do not on an annual basis equalise for needs and resources in allocating grant.

Street Repairs is a brand new way of linking local people to local authorities

Street Repairs is a brand new way of linking local people to local authorities, councils, and highway transport bodies on a nationwide scale. It empowers residents to improve their local environment while saving local authorities money on maintenance and administrative costs. https://streetrepairs.co.uk, the publicly accessible, free-to-use transparent reporting and monitoring system, hands power over to local residents by making it easy to report faults and track the council's progress in addressing them.

 The Street Repairs website is used to capture information about street maintenance issues such as broken pavements, rubbish, street lighting and potholes. Residents can reclaim local streets and work with their council to keep them clean, tidy and safely maintained.

Warning to councils: the biggest cuts are yet to come

Do you feel slightly discomforted when you hear David Cameron, Nick Clegg, or Eric Pickles talk about local government finance and the future of local government?

Secretary of state Eric Pickles and his local government minister Brandon Lewis seem to be in a state of denial, believing that, if only councils adopted their 50 budget saving recommendations, all will be well. It is simply ridiculous to believe that "cutting out the biscuits" or "sacking a chief executive" will come anywhere near to compensating for the scale of the cuts in local government resources.

Between 2010 and 2015, government funding to local government will be cut by 43% in real terms, which is more than twice the level of cuts experienced across government as a whole.

Recently, Cameron repeated a statement first made by George Osborne in the June spending review advising that the latest revision – described as a 'technical adjustment' – would mean just an extra 2.3% cut in the next few years. Independent experts suggest the figure is closer to an extra 10%.

Council to invest £785,000 into play areas

Crawley Borough Council is proposing to invest £785,000 in play facilities across the town over the next four years.

But there are also plans to close four play areas in Bewbush with the possibility of two more to follow.

The plans for 2014/15-2016/17, which also include improvements to the children’s play outreach programme, will be debated by the council’s Cabinet on Wednesday December 4.

The Cabinet will hear about potential future improvements worth an extra £740,000 in 2017/18-2018/19.

A council spokesman said: “Eleven play sites were considered for removal in Bewbush, two in Broadfield and seven in Ifield in November 2012.

“However, following consultation with residents and usage surveys the council is not proposing to remove any play areas in Broadfield or Ifield and close four play areas in Bewbush, with the potential for two more to be removed if the proposed development in the west of Bewbush proceeds.

“If the proposals are given the go ahead, the four removed play areas – which will be within 200m of another playground which will be improved – will be grassed.”

The plans for 2014-2017 also include the installation of a new play area in Maidenbower as well as improvements to eight play areas.

Cllr Duncan Crow, Cabinet member for Leisure and Culture, said: “We’re looking to make this large investment in the town’s play facilities because we know how important it is for children to be active and we want to have more of a balance in play equipment available across the town.

“These new improvement proposals, as well as the Play Training Programme and Streets Alive, follow the investments made at our larger play areas over the past five years.

“In terms of closures, we’ve listened to what residents have told us over the past year and ensured our plans are aligned with the wishes of Crawley’s children, closing fewer play areas while making major improvements to the most popular, larger sites.”