Local government was right at the front of the queue for austerity measures, with councils losing 60p out of every £1 that the last Labour Government gave to councils in 2010.

Austerity strangled the UK’s economic recovery and caused damage to communities up and down the UK, devastating both the public services that protect the most vulnerable and the universal services we all rely on. So unsurprisingly as Labour’s leader in local government I believe councils should be at the front of the queue for reinvestment, and it’s fantastic that Labour’s manifesto aims to restore council spending power to 2010 levels over the course of the next Parliament.