A ccording to one of the great 19th-century champions of municipal government, a well-run town was “a solemn organism through which should flow ...
all the highest, loftiest and truest ends of human nature.” Local leaders, argued the influential Birmingham preacher George Dawson, were charged with delivering beauty and dignity to all the members of a community, as well as order and health. The vision of Dawson’s “ civic gospel ” is, of course, a world away from present realities.
Hobbled by funding cuts since 2010, England’s 317 councils are paying the price of the failures of central government. Statutory obligations relating to adult and child social care and the homelessness crisis mean they are struggling to offer even the bare minimum to local electorates. In a thoughtful paper published this week, the Demos thinktank charts the impact of this crisis in local government finances on the social fabric of cities and towns.
Obliged to spend £2 in every £3 on rising care costs (and still falling short in terms of meeting soaring demand), councils are unable to invest in the public goods that allow places to flourish. A sustained cull of youth centres, libraries and other social spaces has impoverished community life, particularly for those who lack the private means to compensate. The result, conclude the paper’s authors, is a vicious cycle of social as well as economic decline.
Addressing this depressing legacy, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has performed so.
