- 23/02/2024
- Posted by: FAB Labour
- Category: News
Potholes! So many people are (rightly) complaining about them. Hampshire County Council recently revealed record numbers of complaints about potholes, and Surrey tops the national league of shame for pothole reports.
But the state of Britain’s roads is just the most visible aspect of the hollowing out of public services in broken Britain. It all started in 2010 with Cameron, Osborne and Clegg – the ‘three austerity-teers’. They started the cuts in the funds to local councils and it has continued relentlessly since.
Local council spending has shrunk by approximately 40 per cent over the past 12 years. Councils have a duty in law to support the less visible but vital adult and child social care provision as demand has risen. But spending per head on roads, culture, housing, and many other locally provided services have suffered deep real term cuts.
The recent promise by Rishi Sunak of £600 million is just a fraction of the Institute of Government estimate of £7 billion needed to get local government spending back to the levels of 2010.
The 2010 Tory/Lib Dem coalition said, ‘we are all in this together’. After five Tory Prime Ministers and seven Tory Chancellors of the Exchequer we now know exactly what they have dropped the vast majority of the people of Britain in to!
Jeremy Hunt is floating the idea of tax cuts as a pre-election gimmick. If there really is money spare he should be thinking about properly funding our beleaguered local councils.
Geraldine Sheedy
