The leader of Birmingham City Council is calling on the spending watchdog to examine the viability of local government if the Government’s funding cuts go ahead.
Sir Albert Bore has written an open letter warning that the forecast for the authority’s finances is worse than originally thought. Last year he said the council would need to find savings of £615m from its annual budget by March 2017.
However, the reductions in funding following the spending round - which were much greater than the 10% reported, - means the council will now need to save £825m a year by 2018.
Sir Bore said: ‘I have, on occasion, been accused of being too gloomy with this terminology. And I would love to say that I was wrong, that our figures were far too pessimistic, but I simply cannot.
‘Indeed, since then we have had a series of further announcements from central government and their impact can only be described as shocking and, in fact, far worse than we originally predicted.’
Sir Bore said the council will protect key services where possible but some may cease to be provided. He is now calling on the National Audit Office to examine government’s management of council funding and to asses the future viability of local government in the wake of the cuts.
