English councils face 1.8% funding cut next year

Councils across England are facing an average cut of 1.8% in their spending power for 2015-2016.

The cuts were confirmed by Local Government Minister Kris Hopkins in Parliament on Thursday morning.

He said: "English local government is expected to spend over £114 billion this year – around a quarter of all public spending. This settlement therefore recognises that local authorities continue to make a vital contribution to helping pay off the deficit.

"Once again the settlement leaves councils with considerable total spending power.

"As planned, we have kept the overall reduction to 1.8% – lower than last year and one of the lowest levels of reduction under this government.

"If we include the funds that government has provided to support local transformation, the overall reduction is even lower – at 1.6%.

"Councils facing the highest demand for services continue to receive substantially more funding and we are continuing to ensure that no council will face a loss of more than 6.4% in their spending power in 2015 to 2016 – the lowest level in this Parliament."