Local government finance officers have mounting concerns about council finances and public services delivery faced with a new round of budget cuts.
A survey of chief finance officers by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has found growing anxiety about their chances of maintaining a ‘sound financial position’ in the medium term compared with 12 months ago.
The survey of 134 councils shows that 25% are much less confident about their finances for 2013/14 and 41% are slightly less confident; this is in contrast to the 16% of respondents who are slightly more confident in their future financial position.
It also highlights higher levels of anxiety in relation to ‘ability to deliver services’ where 51% and 19% respectively of chief finance officers are slightly or much less confident about the medium term position than they were twelve months ago.
The majority of councils are planning to reduce overall spending in real terms in the financial year which begins on 1 April and the survey found 38% expect to reduce their budgets of up to 4.9%, with 40% likely to make budget cuts of between 5% and 9.9%.
Budgets for capital investment projects and economic regeneration, are most likely to be protected by authorities, whereas those for services such as leisure, libraries and support services are most likely to face deeper reductions
