Hackney Mayor speaks out over government’s Comprehensive Spending Review

Hackney's elected mayor, Jules Pipe

At yesterday evening’s full council meeting (Wednesday 27 October), Hackney’s elected Mayor, Jules Pipe revealed the full impact the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) could have on the provision of services to the borough’s residents.

In the light of more details following last week’s CSR announcement, it appears that the majority of funding cuts from central government to Hackney Council will be made next year, rather than being spread evenly over four years as initially indicated.

The council says that if correct, this could mean a reduction in government funding of between £50 and £60million in the coming financial year (2011/12).

Speaking at the full council meeting, Mayor Pipe said: “The detail behind last week’s government announcement suggests that the grant cuts aren’t spread across four years, but have been frontloaded to take out between £50 and £60million in the first year. This means a reduction of around 20 per cent in the first year, not the 7.25 per cent stated by the government. Unless there are further funding streams that are still to be revealed by the government to make up this shortfall, the council will be faced with having to make devastating decisions.

“Extra grant funding has been given to areas like ours in the past for good reason, but we will now see reductions in grant of more than twice the national average.

“I will be continuing to work to minimise the impact of these cuts on our residents, and the protection of frontline services will remain our priority. I will be lobbying government and working with colleagues in other authorities to ensure that the most deprived areas are treated more fairly.”

In the lead up to the chancellor’s announcement, Hackney Council says it had successfully found savings of some £26million, some 6-7 per cent of its budget, to be ready for the coalition government’s reduction to next year’s local authority grants. Having identified this amount of saving already would have meant that the council had bought itself a 12-month breathing space to avoid snap front-line service reductions.

Last Wednesday, the prime minister, the chancellor, and the secretary of state – in writing to all council leaders – all confirmed that the average loss in real terms to local authorities would be around 7 per cent each year.