The day that Gordon Brown made his keynote speech to the Labour conference this week coincided with the latest public finance figures.

And they did not make happy reading. Oddly, Gordon didn't refer to them during his electioneering address.
High central government spending, coupled with a sharp decline in corporation tax receipts, put the public finances into deficit in August, according to the Office for National Statistics. The two London underground PFI maintenance contracts, Metroline and Tube Lines, have also been reclassified to the public sector books. One analyst was quoted as projecting borrowing exceeding its target by just under 10% – or £3bn – even before any fall-out from the Northern Rock saga, which could lead to less tax receipts.
None of this is very comforting for local authorities concerned about the impact of the CSR due next month, which has already been widely trailed as tight. And nor did Brown's conference speech this week suggest any glimmer of light. On social care, the biggest budgetary problem for upper-tier councils, he merely pledged making ‘public services personal to the needs of the elderly and more control over personal social care budgets' without any suggestion of more social care funding for councils having to deliver the services against a background of every-rising demand.
On the contrary, any extra public spending will go to education and, of course, the NHS. He made a commitment to one-to-one tuition for 300,000 pupils in English and maths, plus small group tuition for 600,000 pupils, which is laudable, but won't come cheap. Then there is the cost of extending the leaving age to 18, plus a promise to fund all 16-year-olds from low income families through to 21, when they leave university or college.
He even pledged to invest £670m in youth community facilities, as well as making a curious commitment to using unclaimed assets in dormant bank accounts to build new youth centres. Even the police get a look in. He promised 10,000 hand-held computers by next year for them so they could log crimes on the spot. And then there is the doubling in the number of hospital matrons, ‘new funds' for ward cleaning, and more GPs. By the time all this is budgeted there isn't much left for councils.