Frontline jobs will only be protected by cutting across Whitehall departments, the LGA has warned.
Chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, and communities secretary, Eric Pickles, have been briefed on LGA proposals for ‘Place-based budgets' which, it claimed could release savings of up to £100bn over five years.
The plan, largely based on findings from the Total Place pilots, would devolve commissioning responsibility for a set of local services with councils.
It would end the plethora of funding streams, accountability regimes, ring-fenced budgets, quangos and funding bodies.
Paul Raynes, LGA programme director, said: ‘We believe it can deliver better outcomes and savings. What we want is better collective working to cut the cost of central supervision and bureaucracy.'
Mr Pickles said: ‘There is enormous potential for serving the public better and more productively through closer joint working that puts the individual and community at the heart of streamlining complex public services.'
The LGA plans to:
