Brutal Cuts to U.K. Local Services Are Laid Bare as Austerity Ends

(Bloomberg) -- The savage impact of almost a decade of austerity on local services in England was laid bare in new analysis published Wednesday.

With councils concentrating resources on the most needy residents, services including housing, planning, transport and culture have seen their budgets slashed in half since 2009-10, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

A focus on meeting statutory duties means that social care and health now account for almost two thirds of local authorities’ non-education budgets, leaving other services facing cuts of 40% on average, the think tank estimated.

“Looking ahead it may be difficult to squeeze much more money from these if councils find their budgets under further pressure,” said IFS economist Tom Harris, who helped write the report. “In councils that have had to make bigger-than-average cuts over the last decade, it’s bigger cuts to social care that have largely allowed them to do this.”

The findings illustrate the growing claims on public money as years of belt tightening come to an end. Both the ruling Conservatives and the Labour opposition have promised to open the spending taps if they win power in the Dec. 12 general election.

The IFS said spending per resident on routine road maintenance has fallen by 53% and outlays on the regeneration of private-sector housing are down by 70%, with the axe hitting hardest in London and poorer parts of the country. By contrast, spending on tackling homelessness has soared by 72%.

A risk is that more deprived authorities with smaller tax bases fall behind their better-off neighbors, making the question of how “redistributive” local-government funding should be a key issue for the next government, it said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Atkinson in London at a.atkinson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Brian Swint, Lucy Meakin

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