As Communities Secretary Eric Pickles calls on local authorities to resist council tax rises, UNISON is warning that it is his government’s own drastic cuts that are leaving many councils with no other choice.
All across the country, multi-year, multi-billion pound cuts to government grants are forcing councils to cut vital services and to increase council tax.
And new analysis by UNISON, the UK’s largest union, shows that the drastic cuts to Formula Grants – a major source of government funding to councils – are worth almost £1.2bn this year. This is much worse than the £0.2bn outlined in the Spending Review 2010.
Analysis by UNISON, comparing 2012/13 Formula Grant with next year’s cash equivalent, reveals that the cut averages out at 8.4% – or £1.2bn.
The government’s 2010 Spending Review already meant that for every £100 in Formula Grant that was paid to councils in 2010/11 just £73.60 would be paid in 2013/14. The settlement announced by Eric Pickles now reduces that to just £68.60.
Eric Pickles described this as ‘a bargain’ when he announced the provisional settlement. UNISON is warning that the most effective way of stopping cuts to local services is for the Government to stop cutting its grants.
Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:
“If Communities Secretary Eric Pickles was really concerned about council taxpayers, he would ease the drastic, multi-billion pound spending cuts that he has inflicted on councils.
“Many councils are struggling to keep basic services running, and local people are losing out as libraries, elderly care centres, swimming pools and nurseries close down.
“Council leaders across the political spectrum are warning that government policy is having a disastrous affect on councils. It is time that Eric Pickles started to listen to those in his own party and elsewhere and took action to protect council services, and in turn local people.”
*Local Government already faces a reduction of 28 per cent in Formula Grant by 2014/15. Spending Review 2010 cut Formula Grant – the main grant to local authorities – by £3bn; £1.6bn; £0.2bn and £1.3bn in the years 2011/12 to 2014/15.”
UNISON’s new analysis suggests that the additional cut due to the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement that replaces Formula Grant with the Start Up Funding Assessment (SUFA) averages over 8.4% – a very different picture from that presented by the Government of a reduction in spending power of 1.7%.
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