England’s most deprived regions have been hit hardest by local government budget cuts since 2010, an anti-poverty charity has found.
Analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) reveals the poorest English authorities have seen per head spending cuts £182 larger than the country’s most affluent town halls.
A historic link between the amount a council spends and local deprivation levels has been broken, with the extra per head cash for deprived councils to cope with additional need falling from 45% to 17% over the past five years.
Fears were also raised that continuing spending cuts would see the poorest people and places ‘even harder hit’ in coming years.
Josh Stott, policy and research manager at the JRF said: ‘We are now beginning to see the impacts of the cuts filter through on to the quality of local services.
‘We need to rethink the pace of the cuts to allow local government the time and capacity to develop long term solutions geared towards supporting people out of poverty and reducing demand on their services.’
A Local Government Association spokesperson said: ‘Many local authorities are concerned about the level of core grant they will receive from government in comparison with other councils. The last few years of spending reductions have shown that it will be vital for any future government to tackle the way councils are funded.’
Responding to the report, local government minister, Kris Hopkins, said: ‘We rebalanced the funding system for councils and devolved power so town halls can keep more of what they earn and rely less on grants from Whitehall, providing real incentives for housebuilding, economic growth and the creation of jobs in every area.’
‘However, those councils facing the highest demand for services continue to receive more funding and have higher spending power than less deprived authorities.’
