Local government appears to be on its knees, and it’s not the usual suspects of authorities run by opposition parties who are complaining loudest. Today, Surrey County Council is revealed to have a £105 million funding gap, and this after Northamptonshire issued a Section 114 notice, which bans almost all new spending.
Organisations such as the Taxpayers’ Alliance argue that Surrey still managed to find additional money for its chief executive, suggesting that this is still a story about inept management of local government finances. Perhaps, but it’s also worth looking back at how the funding crisis began.
In the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review, one of the first departments to settle early with the Treasury was Communities and Local Government, then led by Eric Pickles. An early settlement usually means that a Secretary of State largely agrees with the cut being suggested by the bean counters, and in this case that was exactly what happened.
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