Angela Rayner has accused the Conservatives of cynically applying a “sticking plaster” to council finances to get through the next election, as local authority leaders warn that more will go bust next year.
The shadow communities secretary said Labour was “under no illusions” about the financial mess it would inherit in local councils if it gained power, after the Tories “took a sledgehammer” to budgets for more than a decade.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Angela Rayner has accused the Conservatives of cynically applying a “sticking plaster” to council finances to get through the next election, as local authority leaders warn that more will go bust next year.
The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, was forced to bail out councils in England last week with a £600m funding pot to prevent a rebellion of Tory MPs who fear losing their seats.
The warnings from the levelling up secretary will add to Labour’s fears that the Conservatives are pursuing a scorched earth policy of underfunding public services in order to spend its spare cash on tax cuts to boost Sunak’s electoral prospects.
In an interview, Rayner said libraries, sports centres and youth provision were “not a garnish” and rejected calls from some Conservatives to reduce the types of services that councils had to offer.
She said Labour would have to look at the overall state of public finances if it were to take power in the next year, but it would want to move to multi-year funding settlements to help councils plan better and make sure money was directed to the areas that needed it the most.
Roger Gough, the Conservative leader of Kent county council, said he had warned Sunak 15 months ago the government was “sleepwalking into financial disaster” amid dramatically escalating pressure on local authorities.
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