SIGOMA cuts analysis covered by the Financial Times

Posted on July 18, 2023

Excerpt from the article below, read the full piece in the FT (£) here.

Financial ‘jaws of doom’ threaten English councils as cost pressures mount

Like many parts of England’s former industrial heartlands, Stoke has had it especially bad. According to the Specialist Interest Group of Municipal Authorities (Sigoma) representing 47 councils in the North, Midlands and south coast, the city has endured real-terms cuts to government funding of 26.9 per cent since 2010. This fits a pattern, according to recent research published by Sigoma, whereby the most deprived 10 per cent of local authorities have seen government cuts almost three times as high as the richest 10 per cent. Local authorities such as Stoke are at further disadvantage when it comes to raising revenues from council tax because the properties on which tax bands are calculated tend to be less valuable in poorer areas than in richer ones.