LOCAL GOVERNMENT FUNDING

That this House notes the finding of the National Audit Office that the Government reduced its funding to local authorities by 37 per cent in real terms, between 2010-11 and 2015; further notes the cross-party Local Government Association has estimated that the overall funding gap to councils will amount to £5.842 billion by 2019-20; considers this poses an ongoing risk not just to cherished community services but to essential frontline services, such as support for users of adult social care, older people, looked-after children, care-leavers, those with disabilities or special educational needs, survivors of domestic violence and low-income families in crisis; notes that, in addition to increases in local council responsibilities, central Government policies, such as the bedroom tax, the freeze on Local Housing Allowance rates, cuts to social security payments, including for disabled people, counter-productive public health budget cuts and the continued 20 per cent rate of regressive VAT, are increasing demand for council services; believes the cumulative effect is slowly but surely putting an end to local government as we know it; and calls on the Government to put in place the funding necessary to protect local government services and allow councils to restore spending on community and frontline services to sustainable levels.