Tories cut funding to local government, media barely report it

[Fambo Number Mive]

BBC isn't covering it, only the Mirror seems to be. And to get the exact figures, I had to go to the Newcastle Chronicle.

The main central grant for local councils will actually fall by £1 billion this year, from £15.5bn to £14.5bn.

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/tories-accused-breaking-promise-end-15784190

So we have all that money to spend on Brexit, especially preparing for a no-deal Brexit, but less money to spend on public services.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, whose members include Houghton and Sunderland South MP Bridget Phillipson, warned in a report: "Some councils are now in an extremely worrying position: overspending their budgets for social care, reducing key services, falling back on financial reserves and increasingly relying on generating other sources of income, which comes with greater risks."

The big cost is children's social care, with 33p for every £1 being spent on services spent on that: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2019/02/who-needs-libraries-anyway-how-tories-warped-purpose-local-government

Expect to see more services provided by local government, such as libraries cut back. It would have happened even if Brexit had not, of course, but the amount of money spent on Brexit further exposes that austerity is an ideological choice, not a necessity.

Speaking in the Commons debate, Mr Brokenshire said: "Any council has the freedom to set higher council taxes if they wish, providing they gain the consent of local people in a referendum.

Yes, because referendums work so well. And of course, they cost a lot of money to run.

[Cuellar]

Petition to rename post-Brexit Britain 'Brokenshire'

[bgmnts]

Fucking EU making our benevolent government do these things.

[Shit Good Nose]

This is not a new thing and has been happening for the last few years, and many local authorities will have to become 100% self-sufficient next year as ALL central government funding is withdrawn.

[Blumf]

Surprised that more local govs aren't clearly shouting out that we're being ripped off. We pay our income taxes, and VAT, to central government and the money is being withdrawn without any reduction in our costs.

[Buelligan]

You're getting Trident and Arlene Foster's DUP show, God know's how many fucking trips to Brussels for Domononiic Raaaaaaaaaab (not Economy).  Pull your fucking horns in or I'll get a spokesperson from the "Taxpayer's"* "Alliance" to patronise and smirk at you again on Question Time.

_{*note Sir Anthony Bamford there}

[Norton Canes]

At least we've got the national debt under control eh.

[SpiderChrist]

This is not a new thing and has been happening for the last few years, and many local authorities will have to become 100% self-sufficient next year as ALL central government funding is withdrawn.

Wait, WHAT?

[SpiderChrist]

There was something on local news last night about this.  Vox pops on the streets of Great Yarmouth. Couldn't help but wonder how many of the contributors moaning about funding being cut were Conservative voters.

Answer - over half of them. https://electionresults.parliament.uk/election/2017-06-08/Results/Location/Constituency/Great%20Yarmouth

[Shit Good Nose]

Wait, WHAT?

LAs with established income streams (commercial estates being the most common example) that, in central government's eyes, can "cope" alone will lose all funding from 2020 and into 2021.

At the same time, the central government restrictions preventing LAs from making money and a profit remain in place.  So it's been well thought through...

[SpiderChrist]

LAs with established income streams (commercial estates being the most common example) that, in central government's eyes, can "cope" alone will lose all funding from 2020 and into 2021.

At the same time, the central government restrictions preventing LAs from making money remain in place.  So it's been well thought through...

Fuck me.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Petition to rename post-Brexit Britain 'Brokenshire'

I like it

[Shit Good Nose]

Fuck me.

Yep.

The posher London boroughs will still be getting central funding though.  Natch.

[Shit Good Nose]

Another little known and never reported fact - several years ago central government forced tory led LAs to reduce or hold council tax, despite being told that that would cause massive problems in future.  "Tough shit" central government said.  It's now in the future and the whole country is pretty much fucked.  "Well that's because you reduced or held council tax" central government said...

[petercussing]

I work with lots of LAs and a guy from one of them said to me 3 years ago when there were impending cuts then "We're delivering the bare essentials now and we're being asked to cuts 30% from our budget, we're just going to have to start delivering things badly or not at all". You can imagine where they're at now.

It was funny when george osb-eezy created the plan to cut the grant funding to councils, but said "don't worry you can keep a large chunk of your business rates" and then he cut business rates for all small businesses, which fact fans, make up 98% of all business in the UK. What a wacky way to do an underhand cut to the public sector.

It's your county council's you need to be worried about, they have been tasked with providing social care which was dumped on them when they were struggling anyway. They have less capacity/latitude to raise revenue and all rely on EU funding to make up funding gaps for jobs, through ERDF projects. When that's gone this new fund the gov has come up with better be a doozy or you are gonna see loads of these up fuck alley (a place that's far less sexy than it sounds). It's this sort of shit that needed pointing out in the referendum but again i don't think anyone would have cared.  Dudes are gonna be str8 Northamptonshire.

[Mr_Simnock]

This is not a new thing and has been happening for the last few years, and many local authorities will have to become 100% self-sufficient next year as ALL central government funding is withdrawn.

This, it's been Tory policy since they got back in. Looking forward to seeing many bankrupt tory councils in the coming years trying to argue it wasn't tories who brought this about. It's going to be bleak without a Labour gov very soon for many couincils, please let there be a GE this year.

[Shit Good Nose]

This, it's been Tory policy since they got back in. Looking forward to seeing many bankrupt tory councils in the coming years trying to argue it wasn't tories who brought this about. It's going to be bleak without a Labour gov very soon for many couincils, please let there be a GE this year.

Quite.

The tories have never made a secret of their absolute hatred of local authorities as they go against the core principles of capitalism.

And then the same people who voted tory complain about rubbish not being collected, grass verges not being cut and there being no support for elderly relatives that they can't look after cos they're too busy working.