More than one-third of England's population (37%) live in areas where their council spends /i,ooo or more on each resident, new coalition figures revealed this week. Data published by communities secretary, Eric Pickles, attempts to hit back at recent coverage of the impact of local government cuts, including a BBC TV documentary this week exposing widespread public misunderstanding about the range and scope of services provided by local authorities. Mr Pickles published his latest 'heat map' of council spending across England on 17 May, breaking down the ￡53bn of local revenue spending for 2011/12 and showing that the average town hall could spend £1,017 per resident over the year.
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