Manchester City Council leader Bev Craig has written to the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt ahead of this month’s Autumn Statement, Cllr setting out the financial pressures facing Manchester City Council
In the letter Craig writes
We are working hard to build a fairer city where everyone can share in success but in the face of significant pressures on our budget, on top of more than a decade of funding cuts since 2010, it is becoming increasingly impossible to make ends meet.
She cites the fact that the City has had to find £443 million of savings since 2010 adding that If Manchester City Council had received even the average cut we would be £70 million a year better off.
Several factors are now making the situation even worse.The cost of inflation is now £21m a year compared with £8m a year pre-pandemic whilst demand continues to increase for long-term care arrangements in Adult Social Care, both for older people and those with learning and physical disabilities. This will cost an extra £7.2 million in 2024/25.
Increased Children’s Services costs,Home to School Transport costs for children with special educational needs and disabilities and the ongoing freeze to Local Housing Allowance (LHA) are all pushing costs up while the Council has £2.5 million in unfunded costs associated with looking after unaccompanied asylum seeker children for 2024/25.
Craig says that future funding settlements need to be sufficient, sustainable and strategic.
Craig says that a “lack of stability through long-term funding has constrained the scope for our own strategies to reach their full-potential, and for us to use our place leadership role to support government agendas around housing growth, regeneration and climate change. Imagine how much more we could achieve if we were fairly funded.”
