Sector ‘will bear brunt’ of spending cuts

06 November 2009

Highways and environmental services are at risk of becoming the ‘super losers’ of local government as cuts in public spending begin to bite after next year’s general election.

In a bleak assessment to senior environment directors and cabinet members, the London School of Economics’ Tony Travers said a number of ‘Cinderella’ services would face very tough budgets.

‘Highways, the poor old Cinderella service, does not have a powerful protector, despite all of us using them daily.’

Tony Travers, LSE

Although acknowledging that there had been a long history of highways, fire and the environment enjoying a lower billing compared with social services, Mr Travers, director of research centre, LSE London, told the inaugural CSS conference that the gloomy public spending outlook would compound the situation.

Mr Travers’ prognosis was also founded on the premise that local government as a whole would suffer in the face of public spending pressures applied by ‘politically popular’ health and education.

With no increases likely in the public sector budget in the next Comprehensive Spending Review, it was expected that health, police and education would secure some increases in the apportion of public funding. This would happen irrespective of which party or parties formed the next government, he added.

Given the current profile of children’s services following a number of ‘highly visible child protection failures’ and an increasingly-ageing population, transportation, environment and fire would consequently be hit within the local government block.

The poor ranking of highways was compounded by the service’s low profile in numerous Ipsos MORI polls, Mr Travers added.

‘Highways, the poor old Cinderella service, does not have a powerful protector, despite all of us using them daily,’ he said.

Responding to a question from the audience, Mr Travers also highlighted the problem of the ‘reverse incentive’, which had affected the local government sector due to its solid record in delivery and efficiencies compared with other public services. ‘Once you have demonstrated that you can make efficiencies and run a service well, then you are likely to be targeted further for cuts,’ Mr Travers explained.

Other services which seemed to be in constant difficulty, such as health, would always secure the increases.

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