As everyone knows, the budgets of local councils are being squeezed like never before. Recent analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, looking at what has happened over the years of the coalition, showed that on one definition grants from central government to local government have been cut by almost 37% per person in real terms between 2009-10 and 2014-15.

The recent Budget suggested that George Osborne has softened on the overall spending squeeze by the end of the next Parliament but he still indicated more cuts for local government over the next few years. And things would be unlikely to be significantly easier should the General Election lead to a government of a different colour.