The Leader of Bedford Borough Council’s Conservative Group has urged his party colleagues in Government to stop treating local councils as a ‘soft target’ for huge spending cuts.
In a letter responding to the Government’s consultation on spending plans for local authorities next year, Cllr Stephen Moon warned that demand for council social care services coupled with reduced resources will cause ‘dangerously inadequate levels of support, care and service that will lead to greater pressure on GPs and hospitals’.
His letter was in response to the Government’s announcement in December that it will introduce a new fund totalling £240m to assist councils with social care pressures. Remarkably, the formula for allocating this fund will see Bedford Borough Council around £700k worse off in 2017/18. The Council has an estimated spending gap of £27.5m by 2020/21.
Cllr Moon said:
‘It is beyond doubt that there was considerable wastage in local government expenditure as exemplified by the £90m saved over 5 years by Bedford Borough Council with no real effect on services.
‘There is now, however, strong consensus within local government that demand for children’s and adults’ social care requires urgent investment but the Government is not heeding these calls. This means the Council has to maximise its resources from Council Tax and scale back its discretionary services; hardly a sustainable or fair approach.
‘I have made it clear on behalf of the Council’s Conservative Group that the Government must stop seeing local government as a soft target for savings. We need instead long term financial certainty that councils can provide quality and timely support for those in need.'
Cllr Moon's letter in response to the Government's consultation can be seen via the below attachment.