Protect our streets, services, and workers – fund local councils fairly!

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Protect our streets, services, and workers – fund local councils fairly!

Rachel Reeves Chancellor of the Exchequer and Steve Reed Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government

For 15 years, local authorities have faced brutal austerity cuts, with frontline workers and services facing the brunt.

The impact on our communities is nationwide - streetlights are dimmed or switched off. Youth centres and libraries are disappearing. Vital housing repairs are delayed.

Meanwhile, the workers who keep our communities running, council and school staff, have endured over a decade of real-terms pay cuts, slashed conditions, job losses, and shrinking resources.

Our councils are in catastrophic crisis.

Local government debt has doubled since 2010, now soaring to £122 billion. Councils are forced to borrow from government lenders at extortionate interest rates, pushing many to the brink. Six councils have been declared effectively bankrupt since 2021, with 43% of England’s 317 local authorities at risk, according to data from the National Audit Office.

A recent parliamentary report confirms what communities already know: chronic underfunding and systemic neglect have pushed councils to the edge and its getting worse.

Enough is enough.

Add your name. Stand up for local services and demand urgent government action now!

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Unite Action Network

To: Rachel Reeves Chancellor of the Exchequer and Steve Reed Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
From: [Your Name]

Dear Rachel Reeves MP and Steve Reed MP

Ahead of the Autumn Budget, we the undersigned urge you to support Unite’s call to reform local government finances and ensure fair funding in the sector to protect and defend our public services.

The impact of austerity…

For 15 years, local authorities have faced brutal austerity cuts, with frontline workers and services facing the brunt.

The impact of this can be seen across our communities, when streets cannot be cleaned on time, roads are not gritted, streetlights are dimmed, youth centres and libraries are closing and housing repairs are delayed.

At the same time, council and school workers have faced years of real term pay cuts, reductions in terms and conditions, fewer resources and job losses.

Local government debt across the UK has doubled since 2010 and is now spiralling out of control. UK local authorities were £122bn in debt as of 2024, with government lenders charging high rates of interest.

The Local Government Association estimates that councils will face a funding gap of up to £8bn by 2028-29. Six councils have been declared effectively bankrupt since 2021, with 43% of England’s 317 local authorities at risk, according to data from the National Audit Office.

The Housing Community and Local Government parliamentary committee recently issued its report into the funding and sustainability of local government finances and found that years of underfunding and systemic failure has left the sector at breaking point.

But none of this is necessary.

Unite welcomes the government’s recent fair funding review and the proposals to move to multi-year funding settlements and reset business rates income.

But without increasing the overall funding pot and tackling the urgent debt crisis facing councils, services will continue to be eroded to the detriment of our local communities, and needs will continue to not be met.

The Housing Community and Local Government parliamentary committee report makes a number of urgent recommendations to support local government funding, including:

• Providing proportionate increases in central funding where there is an increase in need with a needs-based funding allocation system.
• Fully compensating councils for the recent NICs increases.
• Fully funding adult social care by the end of the current Parliament.
• Nationalising statutory funding which should be based on demand.
• Amending the flawed and costly s114 process which has exacerbated the impact of austerity in local communities.
• Ending the use of Exceptional Financial Support and capitalisation directives which is unsustainable and simply pushes crises further into the future.

Ahead of the Autumn budget, it is critical that the government gets to grips with this crisis and we call on you to ensure that the findings and recommendations of the committee report are fully implemented.

We support Unite’s call for local government debt to be renegotiated and urge you to clearly and unequivocally commit to fixing the ongoing crisis of local government funding, to defend the public services we all rely on every day.

Thank you for your interest and for supporting Unite’s campaign Ι This petition will be shared with Rachel Reeves Chancellor of the Exchequer and Steve Reed MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA