Councils in Yorkshire and the Humber spending £850m a year less on key services than in 2010, says TUC
• TUC calls for large-scale investment in local services
Councils in the Yorkshire and the Humber are spending £850 million a year less on key local services than in 2010, according to a new TUC analysis published today (Monday).
The TUC has looked at the impact of cuts on local government funding across England.
In 2010/11, councils in the region were spending a total of £4.82bn on key services such as social care, waste management, libraries and transport.
But in 2018/2019 – following years of funding cuts from Westminster – that spending had fallen by 18% (850 million) to £3.97bn.
This works out to 20% (£167) less being spent on services per person in the region.
Biggest losers
The five councils with the biggest spending drops on vital services in the region since 2010/11 are:
- Scarborough: spending 49% (£12 million) a year less on key council services
- Barnsley: spending 40% (£86 million) a year less on key council services
- Richmondshire: spending 38% (£3.4 million) a year less on key council services
- Ryedale: spending 36% (£3.7 million) a year less on key council services
- Harrogate: spending 36% (£11 million) a year less on key council services
Councils in England as a whole are spending £7.8 billion a year – £150 million a week – less on key services than they were in 2010 before the spending cuts were introduced.
Impact of central government cuts
Central government grant funding to local authorities has been cut significantly since 2010.
The Local Government Association estimates that councils will have lost 60p out of every £1 the government had provided to spend on local services in the last eight years alone.
Poorer communities have been hit harder
By targeting cuts on central government grants, ministers have disproportionately impacted councils in more deprived areas of Britain, says the TUC.
Local councils today are increasingly reliant on raising income through council tax, their share of business rates and other charges and fees.
But this is much harder for councils in more deprived areas of the country as they are less able to raise significant funding this way.
TUC Regional Secretary Bill Adams said: “Ministers have slashed funding for local services across the region.
“These are services our communities really depend upon, like youth services, libraries and local transport.
“We need a plan for healing the pain a decade of Conservative cuts have caused. That means new investment to restore council budgets back to where they were at the start of the decade.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- A full list of all local authorities in England is available here: https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/LAfundingCuts.xlsx
Methodology:
- These figures are based on net total expenditure outturn for 353 local authorities in England, provided in the Local authority revenue expenditure and financing: England figures for 2010/11 and 2018/19 provided by MHCLG.
- This covers all Non-Metropolitan County Councils, Metropolitan Borough Councils, Unitary Authorities, London Boroughs and District Councils in England. Spending figures for 2010/11 have been adjusted to 2018/19 prices based on CPI.
- It is understood that in certain specific cases there may be variance in the totals shown or the methods of recording figures between individual local authorities and the figures collated by MHCLG. These figures are taken from those presented in MHCLG data sets.
- We have focused only on expenditure related to core local government services and those services that are comparable over the given period – we have therefore excluded education, early years, public health and police and fire services as well as spend on benefits.
- We include spending on highways and transport, children and adults social care, housing, culture, environment, planning and central services. In addition to net total expenditure we have added NHS cash transfers to local authority social care budgets, for example through the Better Care Fund in 2018/19 and through the Valuing People Now programme in 2010/11.
- The figures in 2018/19 relate to local authorities as they were constituted in that year – this therefore does not account for District and Unitary Authority mergers that took place in Dorset, Suffolk and Somerset in April 2019.
- The figures also exclude the City of London and Isles of Scilly local authorities due to their unique position.
- Upper tier authorities include all London Boroughs, Non-Metropolitan County Councils, Metropolitan Boroughs and Unitary Authorities. This excludes funding provided by transport authorities and combined authorities that are spent in local authority areas, e.g. by the Greater London Authority or Manchester Combined Authority.
- LGA estimates about cuts to local government funding are at: www.local.gov.uk/about/news/one-three-councils-fear-funding-legal-duties-will-run-out-within-three-years
- The Trades Union Congress (TUC) exists to make the working world a better place for
everyone. We bring together more than 5.6 million working people who make up our 48 member unions. We support unions to grow and thrive, and we stand up for everyone who works for a living.
Contacts:
Gareth Forest (Lewis)
glewis@tuc.org.uk
0113 200 1075
07810 374 976
Alex Rossiter
arossiter@tuc.org.uk
020 7467 1285
07887 572130
Elly Gibson
egibson@tuc.org.uk
020 7467 1337
079 0091 0624
TUC press office
media@tuc.org.uk
020 7467 1248
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