After the austerity of the 2010s, a look at the headline figures for local government funding would suggest councils should now be feeling more financially secure. Their core funding per resident is up around 10% in real-terms since 2019-20, after adjusting for whole-economy inflation. That is nowhere near enough to undo previous cuts, but enough to ease the pressure on council budgets and allow some expansion and improvements to services?

Alas no – as you will well know. The reason is that demand and costs are surging for some of the most expensive services required by people with the greatest needs. Here are just a few examples: