£65m cuts ‘widen North-South divide’

Coun Keith Wakefield told the Yorkshire Post that the national spending review last month confirmed a further reduction in local government funding.

And in cash terms this will see the Government’s grants for Leeds cut by £36.2m in 2014/15 and a further £28.7m the following year. The predicted cuts are for basic grant funding, but the overall savings needed each year are likely to be much higher, added Coun Wakefield.

Members of the council’s executive board will discuss the figures at Civic Hall on Wednesday.

Coun Wakefield said: “We are looking through the figures to examine what they mean in real terms but we already know the outcome is going to be even more painful and difficult decisions ahead.

“People will rightly be asking how budgets have actually been increasing in certain areas of the country while others have been asked to make massive savings.

“That does not seem fair and I call on the Government to look again at the impact of austerity measures.”

Additional reductions will follow a three-year period in which Leeds City Council, the second-largest local authority in England, will have by March 2014 already made savings of £200m, due to grant cuts and cost pressures.

The impact of such reductions and how they compare to the London and South East were highlighted in a report produced by the Special Interest Group of Metropolitan Authorities.

While English regions have had resources cut by £4.5bn in the last three years, London and the South-East have seen budgets rise by £235m in the same period.