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Liverpool City Council's leader has reiterated calls for ministers to ease the burden of front-loaded grant cuts, after authorities on Merseyside were identified as being among England's most ‘vulnerable' areas following the recession. Cllr Joe Anderson, Labour leader of Liverpool, said he would continue to lobby the coalition over ‘unfair' spending cuts imposed on England's major cities. It followed claims by the Centre for Cities think-tank that Liverpool and Birkenhead, across the river Mersey, were two of the five cities most vulnerable to an economic malaise caused by the huge withdrawal of public spending over the next four years. Sunderland, Swansea and Newport in South Wales were the other cities defined by the think-tank as ‘vulnerable' because of spending cuts. Councils are facing reductions averaging 27% over four years, and have predicted 140,000 job could go, while the education, health, justice and welfare sectors also face significant cuts –putting at risk around 330,000 public jobs in total. According to the Centre for Cities, Britain's ‘vulnerable' cities were those most heavily reliant on public spending to sustain both jobs and local incomes through benefits. The think-tank's report states that the five cities ‘may not feel the full benefits of national economic recovery for some time'. ‘These places will be affected more by government spending cuts. They will need additional financial support from central government, and a realistic local plan of action.' Cllr Anderson said the study ‘highlights the huge disadvantages placed on us by these disproportionate spending cuts'.While it was ‘crucial' that Liverpool reduced its reliance on public spending, he added, he would ask ministers to ‘spread the reduction in spending across the lifetime of this Parliament, to give us a chance to help ourselves'. The Centre for Cities study does not focus entirely on areas likely to suffer following spending cuts, however. Milton Keynes, Reading, Aberdeen, Leeds and Bristol were described as ‘cities to watch' because they were ‘better insulated from the economic impact of the spending squeeze, and have high potential to create private sector jobs'. These areas, the think-tank reports, ‘could make an even bigger contribution to the national economic recovery' if they were quickly handed many of the powers contained in the coalition's Localism Bill, including city mayors.

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WHITEHALL

'Vulnerable' Liverpool urges easing of cutbacks timetable

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