“Councils face a very real risk of collapsing” – Jim McMahon MP

Jim McMahon MP, Labour’s
Shadow Minister for Devolution and Finance, responding to findings by
the IFS that councils are concerned about impact of cuts, said:

 “The
IFS’s shock findings that five out of six councils are not confident they can
avoid significant reductions in service quality over the next five years is yet
more evidence of the damage that government cuts to local government funding is
having. The lack of
certainty over future funding is undermining local councils’ ability to respond
to growing need in their area.

“Earlier this year
we pushed the Government to deliver a properly thought out solution to local
government funding, only for the process to be shelved because of the snap
general election that they called.

"We’re not simply
scare mongering when we say that councils face a very real risk of collapsing
under the combination of growing need – especially for social care – government
cuts to core funding, and the sheer lack of clarity on what a funding formula
will look like in the future. And let’s be clear, it’s local residents who will
ultimately pay the price of unfunded and overstretched services.”

Ends

Notes
to editors

The
report ‘The local vantage: how views on local government finance vary across
councils’ will be available on the IFS website from 00.01 Thursday 14^th
September 2017.