Local authorities anticipate more spending cuts from next year but are increasingly stumped as to how to achieve them, according to a recent /MJ/Capita survey which also found over half intend to decommission services.

An overwhelming majority of respondents (95.5%) expect to face more spending cuts from 2015/16  (the question is, who are the 4.5% who are not?) But councils are still unsure about how to close the budget gap next year; 46% said their medium term financial strategy had identified how to close the gap but 54% said so far it had not.

Just over half (58%) said they were delivering savings through centrally-driven transformation but 58% were also doing it at departmental or directorate level and 56% through individual projects.