WATCH: CCN warns that more councils will struggle without new funding on prime-time BBC News

CCN Latest News, CCN News 2018 | 04 September 2018

This week, the County Councils Network has been featured on prime-time BBC news programmes as debates on local government funding continue to feature prominently in the national media.

BBC news at 6 on September 3 profiled Somerset County Council’s financial position, interviewing the leader of the council, Cllr David Fothergill, and CCN chairman Paul Carter. You can watch the package, where Cllr Carter argues many more local authorities will struggle without extra resource, below.

Following from the BBC 6pm news package, CCN vice-chairman Cllr Philip Atkins was interviewed live on BBC Two’s new Politics Live panel show; as part of a discussion on local councils. Cllr Atkins told the panel that counties had made ‘magnificent’ savings, and will make a further £1.4bn in savings over the next two years, but that demand-led pressures in children’s and adult’s social care are ‘unprecedented’. Watch the interview below.

Cllr Atkins later told the panel that there needs a be a ‘national discussion’ on funding key services, such as adult social care. Read our new report, which argues for government to be bold in finding a sustainable funding settlement for social care, here.

Last month, CCN warned that without extra resource, county authorities will be a position to only deliver a ‘core offer’ of bare minimum statutory services for to local residents. With CCN members facing £3.2bn worth of funding pressures over the next two years alone, it is imperative that government delivers more resource to counties ahead of the Spending Review.