Councils face 632 million “black hole” in waste services

Added to the funding pressures councils are facing in providing social services, the LGA warned that overall local authorities are seeing a 2.2 billion deficit in funds to cover what is expected of them.

” The government has introduced new standards and is making ever more legislative and policy demands on councils without providing an equivalent level of funding.“
– Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart
The Association said this is the equivalent to a 10% rise in Council Tax – or an extra 100 on the average taxpayer's bill.

Today's publication of the LGA's annual statement on Council Tax came two weeks after senior LGA members from all political groups handed evidence on funding gaps to government ministers. The warning comes as the Treasury is busy finalising details for this year's Pre-Budget Report.

The evidence was based on surveys of council finance directors covering almost 70% of local government spending.

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, chairman of the LGA, said: “This new evidence makes for bleak reading for council taxpayers. Although ministers have confirmed that local government has been more successful than any other part of the public sector in making efficiency savings, we are still staring at a 2.2 billion black hole in town hall budgets.

Standards
“The government has introduced new standards and is making ever more legislative and policy demands on councils without providing an equivalent level of funding. The proposed increase in Government grant of 300 million is not even enough to cover basic inflation,” Sir Sandy added.

The LGA said councils were doing “everything they can to manage the pressures they face”, in making efficiency savings and managing costs. But, while some “new burden” funding has been provided by the government, the Association said pressures have not gone away, saying “if anything they have increased”.

Local authorities in England manage almost 30 million tonnes of waste – costing over 3 billion – every year. However, waste volumes are increasing by about 3% each year, while rising Landfill Tax, the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme and local authority recycling targets are also hitting councils in the pocket.

The LGA said new requirements for the disposal of waste electrical equipment could end up costing upwards of 100 million.