Councils will face a further cash squeeze post election as the new government is likely to protect defence spending, former head of the civil service, Lord Bob Kerslake has claimed.
In a echo of his speech to The MJ’s Future Forum last month, Lord Kerslake told the FT: ‘If we think about the pressure on the unprotected budgets, it’s even more acute if you think defence is unlikely to feature in huge measure. That’s something I think people have not taken into account.’
While he claimed councils had ‘achieved a lot’ through current cuts, he said the cost of social care would prevent further slashing of budgets.
Lord Kerslake also raised doubts as to whether the Dilnot proposals to cap the cost of adult care would come to fruition in the current climate of ‘scarce resources’.
Speaking at the Future Forum last month, Lord Kerslake urged local government to up it’s game on lobbying’. He told delegates: ‘The profile of local government is still low in central government. It needs to be raised.
‘We need more places talked about than just Manchester. We need more examples that we can shout about.
‘Local government needs to get much more sophisticated about how it works the national system.'
For full details of The MJ Future Forum, see here: http://www.themj.co.uk/futureforum