Downing Street Says » Council Leaders Letter

» Thursday, February 10, 2011

Council Leaders Letter

Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with Eric Pickles that cuts to local councils should be frontloaded despite opposition from some councils as outlined in an open letter released today, the PMS said that there was an element of frontloading in the Spending Review (SR) settlement because it had to add up.

Put that in today’s letter some council leaders had said that current plans would cost more and be less effective, the PMS said that they also pointed out in the letter that local authorities had been able to find efficiencies year in, year out, which was good and showed what could be done.

The PMS went on to say that everyone in government was aware that there would be a tight SR given the state of public finances. Good local councils had been planning on that basis and working out how they could find efficiencies.

Asked if the Prime Minister thought that Eric Pickles should meet with the council leaders who had written the letter, the PMS said that it was a matter for Eric Pickles. It was the policy of the Communities and Local Government Department to work with councils and see if there was any way we could support this process and help them make efficiencies, for example by indentifying best practice which could be spread to other councils.

Asked if the Prime Minister was worried that more councils had similar concerns, the PMS said that efficiencies could be found. It was important to remember that the start of this process was the fact that we had a large deficit, which in part needed to be dealt with through spending cuts. A quarter of public spending was local authority spending and therefore savings had to be found. Delaying that process would mean that we would end up paying more in debt interest, which was money down the drain. There should be discussions between the Department and councils, which was happening, but we could not reopen the SR.

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