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November 2022 - Local Government

87% of 10 senior council managers believe Autumn Statement will have negative impact on residents: Following the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt's Autumn Statement, a survey was conducted asking senior council managers about how they believe it will affect residents and also their council budgets. It found that around nine in 10 (87%) believe that the financial measures outlined will have a 'negative' or 'extremely negative' impact on residents.

The survey was conducted by Solace, the UK’s leading membership network for public sector and local government professionals, and also found that three-quarters of managers believe that the Autumn Statement will have a 'negative' or 'extremely negative' impact on local businesses, while 69% said it will have a 'negative' or 'extremely negative' impact on vulnerable people in their area.

Looking at the financial position of councils, the survey found that four in 10 believe Hunt's financial plan has put them in a worse financial position that they were prior to the announcement, with around eight in 10 managers saying that even before the announcement they were facing a 'large' or 'very large' shortfall in their budgets for the coming financial year.

Speaking about the findings, Patrick Melia, Solace spokesperson for finance and chief executive at Sunderland City Council said:

"Our members in councils across the country were already grappling with hugely challenging financial pressures, in part due to the huge increases in the cost of all manner of core goods and services, as well as the ongoing increased demand for services, amounting to a real terms funding shortfall into the billions across the sector.

"Trying to respond to these pressures through regressive council tax or use of reserves is simply not sustainable. The upshot is that basic service provision will inevitably suffer, with negative consequences for millions of residents."

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