One of the issues that should crop up in this Tory leadership contest is local government funding. True, it’s not a particularly enticing matter, but Conservative MPs are generally very worried about the state of their local councils.
Today’s BBC story on 11 authorities which could exhaust their reserves within four years underlines this worry. The Beeb used analysis by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance to work out which councils the organisation had listed – anonymously – as being most at risk. The Local Government Association is warning that councils will have to further cut back services and that ‘ongoing funding gaps are simply too big to be plugged by reserves’.
Of course, this also affects the debate about social care, with councils already struggling to fund its provision.
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