Prime Minister’s interview in the Sunday Times: CCN responds

The Prime Minister gave an interview to the Sunday Times this weekend and suggested that local authorities will receive £3.5bn ‘extra’ in funding at Wednesday’s Spending Review.

Below, the County Councils Network responds to his comments.

Cllr David Williams, chairman-elect of the County Councils Network, said:

“The Prime Minister’s comments on local government and social care funding in today’s Sunday Times interview are encouraging. It follows the Government listening to our calls for significant investment in special educational needs, with £700m of new funding already announced.

“CCN have constructively set out to Ministers the need for additional resources for local government, particularly for social care services. Even if councils received the same funding next year as they do now, and raised council tax by 3%, they would face a funding shortfall of £5.2bn. 

“We are confident Ministers are listening, but as ever, the devil will be in the detail. We eagerly await further details of the funding envelope next week. If this represents new funding – distributed fairly between councils – this would be a significant and very welcome contribution to helping councils close our funding shortfall and protect frontline services next year. We can then turn our attention to working with Government to deliver sustainable long term funding, and crucially, secure a cast iron commitment to the implementation of the fair funding review.”