In Focus: Wreckless Eric?
When the ample Eric Pickles described certain councils as “lazy” immediately before he announced the swingeing cuts in his Localism Bill, a huge part of me cringed.
Across the East Midlands, the Localism Bill means cuts to just about every public service and provision. Nottingham City Council was hit hardest, and will lose around £60m in government money.
A grimmer-than-usual-faced Graham Chapman set the council’s stall out, warning: “There won't be anyone in Nottingham who uses our services who won't see or feel the effects of it by the end of this process.
"Cities like Nottingham have been hit harder than most and the City Council, which has already made £37m of efficiency savings in the last three years, is going to have to make some really tough decisions which will mean some services will have to change, reduce or even stop altogether."
I’ve been talking to staff at the council about these cuts and the demoralisation is clear for anyone to see. And, like the cuts to the RDAs announced earlier this year, they won’t just affect the public sector; these cuts will have a knock-on effect to the private sector too.
No-one can surely deny that some councils are overstaffed. Sometimes trying to wade through the bureaucracy just to get to speak to the person you want to, can make you wonder what actually goes on in the marble-lined halls each day, but, as far as I can see, councils are already being creative. Nottingham and Leicester city councils already share back office staff, for example.
They’re run more like businesses than jamborees these days. Sure, they’re pretty flabby businesses, but more and more, council leaders are acutely aware of public perception that’d been egged on by those who advocate only the lightest touch from the state. The same people, of course, who would be the first to complain when their bins aren’t emptied, or when a crisp packet floats by them in the street.
And whether or not it was intended this way or not, the cuts do seem to have hit the most deprived areas hardest. The government's formula for reducing the amount it gives to councils put forward in the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) means that the severest cuts come in the first and second years.
Nottingham has been hit harder than most by the Government's cuts. Research by the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities (Sigoma), a group of urban councils, anticipated that the worst-hit councils will include some of the most deprived in the country, based on estimates of how the changes already announced to the funding formula will affect the distribution of the drastically reduced council budgets.
Those in favour of the cuts would argue that the baton has been passed to the private sector to step in provide the services that the councils cannot. But can they do it for free? The government will say we all need to step up and play our part in the Big Society, of course. I can’t say I’m holding my breath on that one.
Any comments? Sam Metcalf, Insider
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