Member

The Labour-run LGA tells me that by 2026-27 these cumulative pressures will have increased the cost of delivering services by 12.5% in just two years, leaving councils facing an annual funding gap of £6.2 billion just to sustain services at 2024 levels. Those pressures come on top of the fact that councils have already absorbed a 22% reduction in core spending power from 2010, and that is before Labour pursued its reckless war on the countryside by cancelling the rural services grant, with a £10 million cut in Devon and more in Yorkshire besides. This cannot carry on.