Dudley Council leader praises 'generous' funding from government

Dudley Council leader Patrick Harley refuted a Commons committee report warning about the "parlous state of local government finances."

The report from the Public Accounts Committee said new funding for councils announced last year "merely allows local government to stand still rather than allowing them to address the issues they face."

It said real-terms funding for councils had fallen by more than 50 per-cent between 2010-11 and 2020-21 whilst demands for services such as social care had only risen.

Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the committee, said: “Four local authorities have effectively gone bust since 2018 and there are worrying signs that more are getting into a similar position – but the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has been almost wilfully blind to the parlous state of local government finances.

Councillor Harley said he was happy with the level of funding received since 2019 and they were not looking to reduce spending on public services.

He said: "I can't speak for other councils but the settlement for Dudley, particularly in the last two years, has been generous to the extent where we are not looking to reduce spending on public services.

"We are probably £7m better off during that period with extra finance of £1.7m provided in December which was unexpected and allowed us to not have to pass on the cost of green waste collections to the council tax payer

"What I would say is that a more permanent and consistent approach is needed to the allocation of funds so that councils are more aware of what they will be receiving.

"Whilst welcome, had we known about the money in December we would have been able to allocate it earlier and there wouldn't have been that uncertainty about a specific service and where the finance for it was going to come from."

Meanwhile Walsall Council leader Mike Bird said they had managed to balance the budget for the last three years by identifying ways to be more efficient.

He said: "That includes a period during the pandemic the like of which I have never known and I don't think the council tax payers have suffered significantly by us having to budget, we have still been able to provide the services.

"Yes we would have liked more money, everybody would like more money to be able to what they want to do with it, but whether you are running a household or a council you have to deal with what you have got and make plans accordingly.

"There is also money that goes out because of things like the scourge of fly-tipping which we have to deal with. We could do a lot with £1m which is what it costs us a year but because of that we don't have it to spend.

Sandwell Council leader, Councillor Kerrie Carmichael, said her authority plans to produce a "balanced budget".

She said: “As the Public Accounts Committee has found, local government budgets across the country are stretched, with high demands on services and limited resources. In Sandwell we will be presenting a balanced budget that protects front line services as much as possible."