MP attack’s government’s “woeful record” on council funding

MP Faisal Rashid attacked what he called the Government’s “woeful record” on local government funding in a debate in Parliament.
The Warrington South MP said that by 2020, local authorities would have faced a reduction to core funding from the Government of nearly £16 billion since 2010.
Councils would have lost 60 pence out of every £1 the Government had provided to spend on local services.
Local authorities were currently housing 79,000 homeless families in temporary accommodation, including more than 120,000 children. Last year saw the biggest annual increase in children in care since 2010, and councils were now starting 500 child protection investigations every day.
While there are no local elections in Warrington until next year, many other areas are going to the polls on May 2 – and Mr Rashid used the debate as an opportunity to reach out to those voters – calling on them to reject Tory austerity in favour of Labour candidates who would stand up for communities and protect vital local services.
He said: “Nine years of Tory Government austerity has taken its toll on communities up and down the country. Local Government funding has been cut to the bone. Many local authorities are treading water – fighting to protect our vital frontline services to ensure that the most vulnerable in our society are given the protection and support that they need, when they need it.
“That is the scale of the crisis afflicting our local authorities. And it is a crisis which we know hits the poorest the hardest.
“Isn’t it telling that after nine years of savage cuts to local government, the Tory Party is campaigning on its record of road maintenance in the upcoming local elections?
“They boast proudly of ‘A few less bumps in the road’.  The Conservative Party proudly talks of its record on fixing bumps in the road while our communities are starved of the funding that they desperately needed.
“What an insult to the dementia patient who cannot access social care they need, to the family that cannot find a home, or the schoolchild sent home early due to a lack of school funding. Doesn’t this sum up the warped priorities of this failing government?”