The cost of services One of the points made repeatedly by the Lyons review into funding and function is the complete ignorance among the general public about the real costs of their council services. Latest figures from CIPFA into this year’s budget rises among English councils, therefore, ought to be required reading, although, of course, they are unlikely to percolate much beyond the office of the finance director. For example, council services including fire and police cost every man, woman and child £1,748 this year. But of this, education accounts for £733, and social services a further £352. Put together, these two services account for £1,085, leaving just £663 for everything else. Furthermore, despite tabloid claims of profligate council spending on hiring smoking anti-cessation officers or emergency outreach co-ordinators, the total rise in spending comes to only 4.5%. Of this education – directly funded by central government – is 5.2%, while housing and central services are static. There have been percentage rises in streetscene services, but on a low base. Now, not a lot of people know that, although the figures are all there to be seen. Most people regard councils’ main duties as fixing the streetlights, mending potholes in the roads, sweeping away litter, maintaining libraries, awarding planning permission, and eradicating graffiti. Yet, these services, bracketed in the CIPFA figures as ‘highway, roads and transport’ and ‘cultural, environmental and planning’, take up a mere £291 of the total £1,748 per head spending. Your average white van man is likely to say yes, thanks, they’ll pay for that, and the rest can go hang. The Government has already agreed much the same in education, since it now funds this directly through the dedicated schools grant and not through the RSG, although the above figures include education costs. There has long been speculation that the same would happen with social services, at least for the elderly, with perhaps the entire service merging with the NHS and coming out of local authority control. However, the cash crisis in the health service puts an end to that debate. Indeed, many councils have ended up having to foot the bill for partnerships with PCTs which have ended prematurely because funding has ceased. The Lyons review will, one assumes, address this particular issue of councils having to pick up the tab for partners’ failures, as it also ponders how to end the public’s general ignorance on local government finance.
