The Councils Crisis Explained

Why are so many UK local councils going bankrupt? And what can (and will) the Labour government try and do to address it?

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Sources

1. Local Government Association claim that 1 in 4 councils need an emergency government bailout

2. The New Statesman on why councils are a problem for Starmer and Birmingham’s section 114 notice

3. Government data on exceptional financial support for local authorities

4. House of Lords Library information on spending power from 2010/11 to 2020/21 (section 3 - 4)

5. National Audit Office information on spending power from 2010/11 to 2020/21 (pg 13 - 14)

6. House of Commons Library Report on council spending and spending power from 2015/16 to 2024/25 (pg 12 - 15 and pg 17-19)

7. The Times on the council funding gap over the next 2 years

8. NHS information on when councils provide social care

9. Local Government Lawyer article on the English Devolution White Paper

[Milky]

Is anything not in crisis in this country?

[foxbat]

Councils are legally obliged to house people in need of housing. With no council housing, they are forced to rent privately owned properties, and we all know how expensive the rental market is. Councils are also obliged to look after children in foster care. Many children’s homes are run by the private sector and charge councils £250k per child per year. There are many issues facing councils, but these are just two of examples of the private sector sponging off the state due to past government policies.

[Ridz]

UK: cuts council funding by 50%
UK 10 years later: “councils crisis😱” (how did this happen?!)

[Bram]

The national government giving less money to Councils while expecting them to do more work is as illogical as it is unsustainable.

[nathansavage]

Imo, social care should be centralised. There must be so much duplicated admin with it being handled by each council

[book]

Why are local councils borrowing money from commercial banks at 6% and not from the bank of England at 0% interest rate?

[TobiasStarling]

Unless they suddenly built millions of houses its impossible. Huge proportions of their budget (often over 50%) is now spent on private rents for often ex council houses. Problem with thatcherism was eventually it runs out of state assets to sell on the cheap.

[christinalloyd]

Councils main spending is on housing for vulnerable people. They have to pay private landlords humungous rents to be able to do this. If only they had some property of their own that they could use for this purpose. They could call them council houses... lol

[coolstorybrooooo]

I work in local government. The amount of waste is unreal.

[craigbradbury]

The whole council system needs an overhaul. Money is being spent in the worst ways possible. They are inherently inefficient with too many line managers and not enough ground crew.

[BsktImp]

Councils too busy spending 15%–20% of their budgets on private landlords for temporary and emergency accomodation because of the shortage of social housing. I'll leave it others to speculate as to why there's a shortage in the first place.

[aliolci]

Stop funding wars start funding citizens

[thepetermullins]

As someone who works as an independant professional for a local government, can I add that this was a very clear and concise summary of the situation. We are all hoping so desperately that the new national government can focus sooner rather than later on the local governments. I know it's more money thrown at a seeming money pit, but it's not frivolous spending, it's core services. Adult Social Care is on its knees at the moment, with even legally required services being cut right back. We need this multi-year approach fast!

[nsoper]

For all the hardships faced by local authorities, they are also HORRIBLY run and are absurdly inefficient in so many ways

[IslandLife]

Our council is closing schools!!We’ve already had a raise each year of council tax. We’ve just had one of 5%. Business rent has gone up. We’ve been given an uplift by government, but we are still struggling…

[exemployee]

They need to stop spending the money on rubbish and don't say they don't.

[foreveremoatheart]

Red tape is a big problem. I work for the local council, and have offered to do a simple job such as replace broken locks for the public toilets where i work as the local beach warden. Their answer is no, they need to hire someone for i ask why? Iv the tools, jst say yes and its done, and itl not cost them anything. Again answer is know because "reasons are various" ...still havent fixed the public toielts where both male and female toilets do NOT LOCK

[pbrown]

Nooo way. Government mismanagement of the budget. I’m truly shocked

[KevinKevin-pz]

Why are foreigners in hotels or our council houses whilst our own are sleeping rough on the streets when their ancestors paid for these council houses through their rents.Are we all backwards.

[reffusion]

Because everyone seems too scared to even mention the word immigrants, let’s all appreciate how our open boarder love everyone policy is now making everyone worse off than ever….