Austerity

• Council's 'core offer' still leaves £33m deficit

  East Sussex CC’s chief executive Becky Shaw has laid out a ‘core offer’ that could risk the council’s ‘ability to meet statutory guidance and deadlines’.

  

• EXCLUSIVE: Chiefs warning to May if austerity not lifted

  More councils face scaling back services to a minimum statutory offer if May reneges on her promise of ‘better times ahead,’ chief executives have warned.

  

• Whitehall must spend £19bn annually to end austerity

  Theresa May’s promise to bring an ‘end to austerity’ is incompatible with the chancellor’s aim of balancing the books by the mid-2020s, financial experts say.

  

• English councils undergoing harshest spending cuts

  English councils have been hit twice as hard by spending cuts compared to their Scottish and Welsh counterparts, according to a study published today.

  

• Unison calls for windfall tax on PFI corporations

  Trade union Unison has backed a Labour MP’s call for a windfall tax on private companies delivering public services.

  

• The end of the local government finance conundrum?

  Mark Whitehead examines why Thurrock Council is focusing on 'financial autonomy' in the wake of austerity.

  

• Council funding cuts restricting access to contraception

  One in three local authorities have reduced or plan to reduce the number of sites delivering contraceptive services in the last two years, FoI request reveals.

  

• Council staff told to take mandatory unpaid leave

  Northamptonshire County Council has told its staff they must take a day’s mandatory unpaid leave as part of an effort to save £2m a month.

  

• Council to axe 420 jobs to close budget gap

  Swindon council may have to axe over 400 jobs as it comes under pressure to close a £30m budget gap.

  

• Don’t ‘abandon’ austerity, free market think tank says

  ‘Abandoning austerity is no solution’, says free-market policy think tank amid calls to lift the public sector pay cap.