Britain and the cuts: councils set aside 2.3bn as austerity hits
Author: Jim Pickard, Financial Times |
England’s councils have built up extra reserves of 2.3bn in the past financial year despite the coalition’s austerity programme that has seen cuts bite hard into services such as libraries, parks and planning offices.
Local authorities have saved money, in part, through the loss of half a million staff since 2010, about a sixth of headcount, in contrast to minimal net job losses in central government.
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Alex Thomson, head of the think-tank Localis, said councils were seeking to ?smooth? the impact of anticipated future local government funding cuts on their citizens. ?They put money away for a rainy day, as businesses do,? he said.