Check our funding shortfall map and email your MP to ask them to #SaveOurServices

Libraries are shutting, waste collections are reducing, and social services are shrinking. More and more essential services that we all rely on every day are crumbling away.

Local authorities keep our communities together and protect the most vulnerable, providing a range of services that make a real difference to us all, whatever stage of our lives. Yet as more news stories tell of councils experiencing major financial difficulty, the local services that you work so hard to deliver continue to face devastating funding cuts.

Staff working in local councils are finding their budgets slashed to the bone – and after 13 years of constant cuts, there’s not much left. We face the very real risk of the number of councils declaring effective bankruptcy growing rapidly this year.

Watch the video to find out what is happening to our communities:

 

Local services must be resilient and properly funded, yet even our most basic services are facing drastic cuts because of an unacceptable lack of funding from the government in Westminster.

The recent news of an additional £500 million for social care and £100 million in grants is frankly not even a short term fix – councils need proper and sustained funding, not panicked quick fixes to keep the wolf from the door in an election year.

What can we do?

Our research has uncovered that there is a funding gap of just over £3.5 billion for 2024/25 and predicts a cumulative shortfall of £7 billion by 2025/26 in local government. Use our map to see the shortfall in your council.

Visit our council cuts map

Local services will turn to dust without emergency government funding now. That’s why we are calling on Westminster to #SaveOurServices and provide more sustained funding for local councils. And you can help – click to use out tool to send an email to your MP* now, it takes 1 minute.

Email your MP

* If you’re in Scotland you can also email your MSP, and in Wales your MS, using our tool as the devolved governments control how much money councils get there.

Other ways to get involved

If you’re a UNISON activist, you can download campaign graphics and videos here. We have also launched a comprehensive campaign toolkit that you can download here, as well as a quick guide to help you get started that you can download here.

If you’re a UNISON branch secretary, we’ve created a template email you can send to your colleagues to encourage them to use our interactive map and lobby their MP:

View our template email here

Latest

Bolton Council building

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Everyone knows why councils are on the brink of bankruptcy – a massive 41% cut in government funding over a decade, while demand for services has grown. But there is an alternative for a sustainable future for the local services we all rely on

Council bailout cash not even a short-term fix, says UNISON 

Councils need proper and sustained funding, not panicked quick fixes to keep the wolf from the door in an election year

The cash crisis in councils is worsening by the day

That will mean even more cuts to services and further hardship for communities everywhere.

Councils face ‘dire’ cash crisis totalling more than £3.5bn

Huge funding gaps mean job and service cuts are inevitable

Christina McAnea, arms folded, in front of conference stage - 'Fighting for our future'

Blog: How much trouble is your local council in?

As council budgets are slashed by central government, bankruptcies will continue to increase. Only emergency funding now will save our local services