Furious council leaders warn chancellor that austerity measures could force ‘flagship blue counties’ to go bankrupt

Jeremy Hunt has been warned he will trigger a fire sale of public assets, reduce councils to an emergency service and put the vulnerable at greater risk after an autumn statement pointing to a new wave of austerity.

There will be a significant increase in the number of councils in effect “returning the town hall keys” to government because they are no longer sustainable, according to council leaders. In a furious response to the autumn statement, they said several “flagship blue counties” could go bankrupt just as next year’s election is called.

The backlash comes after economists concluded that the chancellor’s tax cuts last week in effect came at the expense of future public spending. Once settlements for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are taken into account, non-protected government departments in England face an annual cut of 3.4% for five years.

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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Jeremy Hunt has been warned he will trigger a fire sale of public assets, reduce councils to an emergency service and put the vulnerable at greater risk after an autumn statement pointing to a new wave of austerity.

    Once settlements for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are taken into account, non-protected government departments in England face an annual cut of 3.4% for five years.

    Sir Bob Neill, the Tory MP who chairs the Commons justice select committee, said that there was a case for “revisiting which departments should be given protection” from spending cuts.

    One senior Tory said: “The Treasury is fully aware that some flagship blue counties are right on the edge: falling over just before the election won’t look good.”

    “The risk is that the revolving door of people committing crime going back into prison, costing the taxpayer a huge amount of money, simply continues.”

    He added: “Whatever the outcome of the next election, it is clear there is much to do to get education back on track following a hugely disruptive pandemic and a decade dominated by funding cuts.”

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