Frontloaded cuts have forced councils in the north and midlands to make sharper reductions than those in the south, the first post-spending review analysis of local authority expenditure has revealed.
The snapshot of net current expenditure forecast for 2011/2012 shows cultural spending including libraries will fall by 10.2% from £1.10bn to £0.98bn in 2011/12. Education spending is set to reduce by 11.4%, from £1.64bn to £1.45bn over 2011/12 and environmental spending will decline by 3.7%, falling from £1.840bn to £1.771bn.
Most prominently, a north-south gap has emerged in adult social care with levels of expenditure rising by 2.7% to £3.3bn in the south while falling 4.7% to £3.4bn in the north.
The research undertaken by the BBC in conjunction with the chartered institute of public finance and accountancy (CIPFA) involved some 268 out of 352 councils. However large authorities including Birmingham and Manchester did not respond.
Ian Carruthers CIPFA's policy and technical director said:'In light of the spending cuts, balancing council budgets has been incredibly tough for finance directors and no individual council service is exempt from the pressure to make cuts. Councils are clearly trying to meet the needs of their communities but people will have to get used to receiving less from their local council.'
Commenting on the survey, Baroness Margaret Eaton, chairman of the LGA said the findings show councils are targeting services at people most in need following unprecedented funding cuts.
Baroness Eaton said:'Unfortunately, with councils seeing their funding from Government cut by up to 17% this year alone, some impact on services is inevitable and tough decisions have to be made.'
