LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCE

That this House is aware that the Government released authority-specific information on local government future funding in July 2013 as part of the consultation of the Local Government Finance Settlement; notes that Coventry City Council has already lost approximately £45 million in the three years to 2013-14 in core Government grant and has had to implement a significant savings programme as a consequence, that a further £19 million cut was also expected for 2014-15 and that the June Spending Round announcement indicated a 10 per cent cut in resources for local government in 2015-16; understands instead that according to the July settlement consultation, the actual cut is over 13 per cent nationally and 15.2 per cent for Coventry; recognises that Coventry will therefore be facing a cumulative cut of 24.2 per cent between October 2013 and 2015-16; further notes that both the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury have indicated that they expect the current trend of austerity settlements to continue for the remainder of this decade; further notes fears voiced by sources within Coventry City Council and other local authorities that, assuming current trends, by 2020 local authorities will only be able to afford the most basic elements of their services, such as statutory minimum levels of service in children's and adults' social care; and calls on the Government to reconsider the scale of the cuts to local government future funding to avoid local authorities having to reduce non-mandatory services.