Shout if you want to be heard over the media storm

摘要

Has local government lost the battle for public support over cuts? As The MJ and LGiU's finance survey last week provoked a media storm over council tax rises, commentators queued up to exhibit their wisdom. It has to be said, there were varying degrees of 'wisdom'.Much of the commentary on our survey - and the previous week's financial failure at Northamptonshire - was simplistic and dumbed down, expressed by political pundits from outside local government with no real grasp of the scale of the problems within council budgets.Despite valiant efforts to explain the gravity of the situation by the LGA's Lord Porter - and an astoundingly insightful Twitter thread by SOLACE president Jo Miller - too much of the debate still focused on councils as bureaucratic, inefficient and wasteful.The reality is, of course, far more complex. There may have been managerial mistakes at Northamptonshire - and indeed elsewhere - but council budgets face a toxic mix of Government-imposed grant cuts, soaring demand and political posturing.While it tightens the tap of central funds with one hand, the Government is cutting off the sector's revenue raising plans with the other. Tightcouncil tax thresholds and restrictions on income generating investments leave councils with few financial options.