The implications of the Government’s austerity programme, which is seeing unprecedented cuts to local government, are now starting to be clear. In 2012 we consulted on a plan which identified the need for £90m of cuts from the council’s budget over a three year period. Since then, additional Government cuts have increased that to £108 million.
Cuts have an obvious and painful impact on everyone, and particularly the most vulnerable in our communities. They result in job losses, services being withdrawn and damage economic confidence. It is therefore regrettable that the Government, rather than easing the pain of cuts as the economy starts to recover, seems determined to press ahead with yet more deep cuts for councils. Many of the cuts they have already announced have yet to be implemented, and the consequences of the further cuts they have planned will, no doubt about it, be very grave.
