MPs have warned that key local services are on a ‘knife edge’ due to the poor financial health of councils in England.
Clive Betts, chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee, has written to Secretary of State Michael Gove to highlight the funding pressures councils are under when it comes to the provision of services such as social care, children’s services, and homelessness.
Mr Betts also announced the secretary of state will answer questions from the cross-party group of MPs on Wednesday 6 December.
‘Councils across the board are facing a set of very serious financial and service challenges. In our inquiry, we’ve heard that councils are on a “knife edge” or that local authorities’ finances are at a “tipping point”,’ he said.
‘The alarm has been sounded and this isn’t just for councils hit by one-off issues but those tipped into difficulty by a range of factors, including the rising costs of social care and children’s services, and the effects of the housing crisis and homelessness.’
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