The public sector is ‘on its back’ says councillor
“The public sector today is not just on its knees – it’s on its back in resus and the outcome is not certain.”
Such was the message from one West Sussex County councillor during a debate about the low levels of government funding being received by local authorities. Alison Cornell (Lab, Langley Green & Ifield East) spoke during a full council meeting on December 15 where a motion was tabled calling on the leader to write again to MPS and the
Secretary of State, appealing for an ‘urgent injection of funding’. Since 2015/16, the government has almost halved the amount of funding it gives to the county council – dropping from £157m to £82m. The story is the same all over the country, with councils repeatedly having to dip into their reserves to plug ever-increasing gaps in their budgets. Some have essentially declared themselves bankrupt, with Nottingham City Council being the latest – though mismanagement as well as poor funding has been the issue in some cases. Kirsty Lord (Lib Dem, Hassocks & Burgess Hill South) tabled the motion, saying the pressure ‘was really building’ – with the situation not being helped by a predicted £22.8m overspend on the children’s service budget. Declaring that it was ‘imperative’ the county’s MPS ‘work for us in Westminster’, she added: “Every year when we approach the budget we have a bit of not quite knowing how we’re going to balance the books.”
Explaining how things felt ‘a bit different this year’, she said: “Firstly is the £4.4m gap that we have in our budget at the moment that still isn’t closed. Normally it feels like we start with a gap at the start of the process and, as we get closer to budget day, it’s slowly closed or we know where the money’s coming from. But this one feels stubbornly open. It’s small compared to where some councils are but it’s still there. We’ve not got any extra efficiencies to pull out of the bag and no more incoming funded is expected.”
While every councillor in the chamber supported the motion, they first launched into a lengthy debate. Jeremy Hunt, cabinet member for finance, acknowledged the council was in a ‘tough position’ but added it was certainly not as bad as the situation at authorities such as Nottingham, Woking and Croydon.