New analysis reveals scope of budget cuts
20 September 2011
A new analysis by LBRO has revealed the extent of planned local government spending cuts on regulatory services (environmental health, trading standards, licensing) in England and Wales.
In England, the planned cuts average 8.8 per cent in 2011/12 compared to last year, which equates to a cut of £63m in spending. Overall, local authority budgets for service delivery have been cut by 5.7 per cent in 2011/12, meaning the cut in regulatory services budget is above average.
Trading standards budgets show an overall decrease of 11.4 per cent compared to 8 per cent for environmental health (including licensing). And there is considerable variation in the level of impact on regulatory services between local authorities, ranging from cuts of more than 40 per cent to increases of 10 per cent and above. Most local authority regulatory services face cuts of 10 per cent or more.
Overall the regulatory services budget in Wales has been cut by 5.9 per cent, which is less severe than in England but high in relation to the overall cut in local authority service expenditure in Wales of 1.2 per cent.
As in England, trading standards fare worse than environmental health with an overall decrease of 7.4 per cent in budgeted expenditure compared to 5.3 per cent for environmental health. Impacts for regulatory services range from cuts of more than 30 per cent increases of more than 10 per cent.
There is considerable variation between services, with the largest budget cut for planning and development at 32 per cent while social care increases by 1.6 per cent.
LBRO Chief Executive Graham Russell said: "If we want to continue to have a regulatory system that we can be proud of, then we must adapt to the changing reality of the economy and public expectations. We must embrace change, embrace the challenge, and innovate our way to doing more with less."
http://www.lbro.org.uk/resources/docs/lars-budgets-2011-12-overview.pdf