John Marriott, Barry Kushner, Tony Greaves and Anne Leonard on the causes and potential solutions to the dire situation that local authorities face
Local government funding in England has been in crisis for years (Covid has exposed dire position of England’s local councils, 10 March), as successive governments have taken ever more power away. Its finances have been the victim of the totally inadequate council tax for decades, and an ever-reducing central grant. In addition, for a number of years, most councils accepted the government’s “council tax freeze grant”, effectively a bribe not to raise council tax rather than face a local referendum if they did. As a result, the county council of which I was a member during that period stopped being a provider and became a “commissioner” of what services survived. It saw its staff reduced by nearly two-thirds over a five-year period. Had it not taken the freeze grant but raised its share of council tax by 2% per year, my council would have been better off by around £40m.
Local government still has the ability to deliver, but it needs urgent reform, so let’s start by replacing council tax with something more progressive and then complete the transformation of the first tier of local government in England into the unitary format.
John Marriott
North Hykeham, Lincolnshire
