London boroughs and councils in the North East and North West experienced the largest per-head spending cuts over the current Parliament, a leading public finance think-tank has reported.

Analysis issued by the influential Institute for Fiscal Studies today shows councils in London cut per-capita spending by 31.4%, while authorities in the North East inflicted 26.5% cuts and those in the North West 25.7%.

There has been a convergence on average levels of spending per person over the last five years, the IFS noted, with London boroughs' differential virtually halving - from 80% higher than South East councils in 2009/10 to 48% by 2014/15.