The financial sustainability of councils is under real strain. As a recent National Audit Office (NAO) report highlights, councils face continuing acute pressures.
There has been a near halving in real terms of central government funding between 2010/11 and 2017/18 and a real-term reduction of nearly a third (28.6%) in local authority spending power over the same period (when including council tax).
Our latest Local State We’re In survey of local authority chief executives and leaders shows that, while councils have coped well so far in the face of austerity, there are real fears of failure looking ahead. Indeed, three quarters (74%) of respondents expect that some councils will get into serious financial crisis in the next year (54% last year).
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