(UK) Local govts: "significant financial pressures"; "severe funding/demand pressures"

Oct 1, 2021, LGC: Councils face £8bn [$10B U.S.] funding shortfall, warns LGA https://www.lgcplus.com/finance/councils-face-8bn-funding-shortfall-warns-lga-01-10-2021/

Councils in England currently face costs of around £8bn by 2024-2025 simply to keep vital services functioning at their current levels, the Local Government Association has warned.

This figure has been compiled from the future pressures faced by councils and does not account for the ongoing demands on councils which include paying care workers a fare wage and investment in early intervention services.

The LGA has concluded from its latest analysis that funding from council tax alone will not meet the significant financial pressures facing local services in the coming years.

Due to such significant pressures, councils face uncertainty around the delivery of essential services in the coming years with social care, child protection, homelessness prevention, waste and recycling and road maintenance….

In its spending review submission, the LGA has called on government to give councils a multi-year funding settlement including a £1.5bn [$2B] funding injection to stabilise the adult social care provider market, together with annual funding to meet councils' social care cost pressures of £1.1bn….

Aside from funding, the LGA’s submission emphasises the importance of devolving further power to local government in areas such as education, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), skills and planning….

LGA chair James Jamieson (Con) said: “Councils continue to face severe funding and demand pressures that will stretch the local services our communities rely on to the limit.”…