Having been a councillor in Crawley for twenty-one years, I’ve been able to observe trends, costs and pressures in local government.  Since Covid, financial pressures have become more acute, mostly caused by greater demand for essential services, especially social care for adults and children. In two-tier local government areas like ours, this means upper tier councils providing those services like West Sussex County Council are facing the greatest financial pressure, although some lower tier councils like Crawley Borough Council are also facing financial pressure due to housing demand.

The main national body in England representing councils, the cross-party Local Government Association (LGA), have said that local authorities are facing a funding gap of more than £2 billion from 2025.  They have warned that any cuts to local authority funding in the Labour’s Government’s budget on 30 October would be, in their words, “disastrous”.

The LGA have made a submission to the Treasury ahead of the budget, saying that the government needs to take immediate steps to protect council finances. Their analysis shows that when inflation and wage pressures are added to cost and demand pressures, that English councils face a £2.3 billion funding gap in 2025/26 which will rise to £3.9 billion in 2026/27. 

Council Tax has become a greater share of the income of local authorities, but I believe the amounts being directly paid by residents are becoming too high.  I agree, when the LGA say that while council tax is an important funding stream, the significant financial pressures facing local services cannot be met by council tax income alone.  I strongly believe that the government telling councils to raise council tax bills by significant amounts would be the wrong way to address future funding pressures, as would scrapping the 25% discount for single-adult households. 

I support the LGA’s position of saying that the government needs to prioritise increasing overall funding to sustain vital services in the years ahead.  Ultimately, we need an informed national debate about how to fund local government in the years ahead, rather than have national government force unaffordable measures onto hard-pressed council tax payers. 

Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group

25th September 2024