Local government has endured the steepest reductions over the current Spending Review with 33 per cent cuts in real terms. Now, with a single year further 10 per cent cut announced in the Spending Round local government was confirmed, yet again, as the hardest hit part of the public sector.

We will have to deal with the impact on our residents. For many there will be a reduction, and in some cases, loss of important and valued local services such as culture, leisure facilities, school support, road maintenance and growth.

We know from our own modelling work the current financial position of many councils is unsustainable in the medium to long term. The initial analysis we presented ahead of the Spending Round suggested that for 86 councils – from different regions, tiers and political control – a further 10 per cent cut in income would mean the available funding to deliver services would account for less than 85 per cent of projected spend in 2015/16. In other words those councils would be short by at least 15p for every £1 they are currently committed to spend. 

These stark figures show the scale of what we are facing. We warned that vital services would be damaged by these cuts and that was largely because councils do not have a seat at the table to negotiate a fair deal for their communities.

By contrast, where we have been directly involved in Spending Round negotiations, the results have been positive.

The extra £2 billion of funding for health and social care integration that the LGA worked so hard on councils' behalf to negotiate begins to tear down the old fashioned silos in Whitehall that have stood in the way of real progress. It also reduced the number of councils facing the razors edge scenario outlined above from 86 to 53. This is still far too many but the transfer and the principle it sets up is a major breakthrough. It could be a game-changer but we need to go further and we need to go faster.

We are now in a position where unless we undertake a radical reform of public services, local communities will be failed.

In May, the Public Accounts Committee concluded that government did not properly understand the overall impact on local services that result from funding reductions. It said that the Government's modelling was inadequate and must be improved in time for the next spending round. The most recent funding announcement shows that it has not. In fact, we even find ourselves in the ludicrous position of having to manage cuts in areas where inspection regimes are being tightened and demands on us are being increased.

A perfect example of this is the proposed 20 per cent cut to the Education Services Grant while OFSTED proclaim that councils must do more to promote school improvement. This shows that not only is Whitehall not joined up but individual Whitehall departments are not even joined up with their own agencies.

There is another, better way to operate but it needs central government to listen to us carefully.  They need to listen to us as a trusted partner, not the office junior who in addition to making the tea is sometimes allowed to ‘have a go' at something more challenging – like the filing.

Our Rewiring Public Services report, which I launched at the LGA Conference last week shows how public services can be transformed through local leadership by rebuilding democratic participation, fixing public services and revitalising the economy.  Our approach contains important challenges to local government, to our communities, to our partners, but most of all to central government.

Our aim is to influence debate now and the party manifestos being written for the next General Election in two years' time.

We have set out 10 big ideas – 10 demands - to transform the way that local government is structured, funded, how that money is distributed and how central government will need to respond.

We believe these will enhance the quality of life for everyone in England and re-connect people to local democracy – giving them a reason again to participate in civic life and in their communities.

Rewiring Public Services sets out a pragmatic way forward which makes the most of this country's richness of community and place. It is based on fundamentally democratic principles and has the backing of all four LGA group leaders. It is founded on an idea of healthy grown up relationships: grown up relationships between all parts of the United Kingdom, between central and local government, between those who use our services and those who provide them, between public, private and voluntary sectors.

It is not a shield to protect local government's interests. We may need to make some of the biggest changes and sacrifices. In fact it is a sword which will empower us to step forward and gain ground for our communities and for the country as a whole.