My council tax bill landed on the doormat last week. It is not the letter I most look forward to opening but I know my council like most other Labour councils will spend our money wisely and in stark comparison with how this government has wasted billions on a slap dash cuts strategy aligned with a lack of any reform of public services.
The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats claimed they formed together for one purpose – to balance the books – on that measure they failed. Public spending has continued to rise and Osborne has had to borrow more.
The government cut the spending department budgets by just shy of 10 per cent on average. Their inability to make savings through efficiency and innovation has resulted in both rising debt and cuts to public services that have damaged the life chances of many. They introduced the bedroom tax, cut the number of police officers, abolished legal aid, reduced the size of the army, scrapped the education maintenance allowance and ended the building schools for the future programme. They cut local government by 40 per cent, more than any other department.
Local government has seen their spending cut by four times the rate of Whitehall departments, but it has done nothing like the damage the Tory government has carried out.
Labour council leaders have shown themselves to be a bulwark of political courage and skill over the last five years. Labour councillors have balanced the books while protecting the most vulnerable, acting as a catalyst for local economic growth, ensuring that the bins are collected and the streets stay clean, building new homes and reducing the amount in real terms people pay in council tax.
Every week council cabinet members are working with their officers to reduce costs, sharing services within the council and with other parts of the public sector, and working more closely with their residents to make sure services are better targeted. Every February councils set out their budget and every year that becomes harder and harder.
In 2010 this government could have done what Labour councils did. They could have merged departments, pooled spending and devolved the accountability for this down to local levels. Had they done that, the impact of the spending cuts would not have been anywhere near as devastating to communities.
The culmination of cuts has also had dramatic effect on the importance of council tax. In 2010 58 per cent of local government funding came from government grants, should the Tory spending plans continue by 2020 it will be down to as little as 12 per cent. Today council tax accounts for just over 40 per cent of what councils spend.
So what is it spent on? The Taxpayers Alliance try and convince us it is all paid on chief executives pay and council functions but this caricature is now beyond parody.
Last year the average band D paid £1222 and just under half of that, £555, was spent on caring for vulnerable children and adults.
This compares with just £21 a year on street cleaning and flood defences – or the price of a take away curry for two. £83 a year was spent on libraries, parks, arts, museums and leisure centres combined. While £87 a year on average is all that was spent on road repairs and street lighting and £91 on rubbish collection and recycling. Council tax payers spent £50 on preventing homelessness, £94 on education and further £50 on buses. The rest was spent on trading standards, licensing, food safety, planning, corners courts, registers, elections, council tax collection and long term investment.
Between now and the end of the decade it is likely that people will be paying similar levels of council tax but most will see a lot less in return. People are rightly going to question why their streets and parks are less well kept, the local library is closing and bus services are being cut when they are still paying roughly the same council tax each month.
After the election a new approach is needed. Innovation and efficiency will only go so far. There are not too many times that you can keep shaving money from your staff training budget before it becomes dangerous. Savings made since 2010 cannot be made again. Once a post has been lost or a building has been sold, you cannot lose the same post or sell the same building again.
The analysis and Future Funding film produced by the cross-party Local Government Association shows in stark terms what the impact will be of further cuts to local government funding over the next five years when demand on vital services is on the increase.
If the services are to survive the next few years, the next government must provide fair funding, genuine health and social care integration and a single pot of money for all public services spent locally. Thankfully we now have the prospect of a Labour government that is ready to take that approach.
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Morgan McSweeney is head of the Labour group office at the Local Government Association
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