As George Osborne finalises his Spending Review, local authorities -which have already borne the brunt of austerity since the last review in 2010 -are bracing themselves for more seemingly impossible juggling acts of sustaining services while grappling with further budget cuts. The Chancellor has told unprotected Whitehall departments to model cuts of 25% and 40% - to secure £20bn worth of savings from government expenditure by 2019/20 - on top of the £12bn of welfare savings identified in the Summer Budget. Subject to further detail, we know that four departments - transport, environment, the Treasury and local government - have already agreed to cut their spending by 30% over the next four years. According to the Government's most senior non-executive director, civil servants have found this process far from straightforward. Sir Ian Cheshire, former group chief executive of Kingfisher, has warned that departments are in the 'fog of war' as they try and work out how to cut their budgets by 25 November.
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