Town halls could be forced to axe more jobs and services than anticipated, if ministers insist on limiting 'the ability of councils to spend their own money', Smith Square has warned. LGA officials last week intensified pressure on Whitehall to grant a generous new round of capitalisation permissions to pay for the increasing costs of staff redundancies, as the sector's huge job cuts continue. The LGA claimed ministers had put a ￡200m 'cap' on the amount councils could spend from their own capital resources to cover redundancy costs - despite estimates the sector faces 140,000 job cuts as it copes with a 27% front-loaded reduction in central government grants over the next four years.
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