There has been a lot of debate about the fairness of the English local government funding settlement for 2016-17 in the weeks since its announcement. For many councils, the reductions from previous years were much greater than expected, and as a consequence many struggled, and are still struggling, to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Therefore, when the settlement terms were revealed, some councils felt it was worse than expected and was highly like to result in the demise of non-statutory services in many parts of the country.