Responding to a report by the TaxPayers’ Alliance on council fees
and charges, Cllr Claire Kober, Chair of the Local Government
Association’s Resources Board, said:
“This report clearly shows that councils receive almost £500
million less in income from fees and charges than they did five
years ago. Faced with escalating costs and unprecedented funding
cuts since 2010, this is a tremendous effort by councils to keep
fees and charges low for hard-pressed residents.
“The bigger picture is that councils face an overall £5.8
billion funding gap by 2020.
“Even if councils stopped filling potholes, maintaining parks and
open spaces, closed all children’s centres, libraries, museums,
leisure centres, turned off every street light and shut all
discretionary bus routes they still would not have saved enough
money to plug this gap by the end of the decade.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
- 1. Councils will have seen their core
central government funding cut by 54 per cent in real terms (£16
billion) between 2010 and 2020.
- 2. The TaxPayers’ Alliance report
shows that:
- o Council fees and charges have risen
overall by just 1.1 per cent between 2010/11 and 2015/16.
- o Total income from council fees and charges
fell by 4.3 per cent over the same period – a reduction of £470
million between 2010/11 and 2015/16.
