Councils: Labour Councils and Funding Gap

councils: English councils face a funding gap of 5.8bn by 2020, according to the Local Government Association, according to The Guardian. The plea from Labour councils comes ahead of this week's financial settlement for local government. Bosses from Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham are among almost 80 Labour council leaders to write to James Brokenshire, the communities secretary, demanding that a forthcoming cut in funding of 1.3bn is cancelled at an absolute minimum . It comes as several councils warn they are facing bankruptcy and one, Northamptonshire council, is effectively bailed out by the government after hitting a financial crisis. In their letter, they warn that by 2020, councils will have lost 60p out of every 1 they were given by central government in 2010. The most deprived areas of the country have been hit much harder than the richest areas - nine of the 10 most deprived councils in the country have seen cuts of almost three times the national average. As leaders of councils representing millions of citizens, we are writing to make clear that you must use the settlement to truly end austerity in local government and immediately provide the funding we need to avoid catastrophic collapse in key council services, they write. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.