Streetlights will be switched off at night. Roads will be swept less often. Home repairs for council tenants will be refused. Libraries and children's centres will close. Potholes will no longer be fixed. Fees for swimming and sports will increase. And luncheon clubs for pensioners, playgroups for children, youth clubs and breakfast clubs will all be cancelled.
The devastating reality of the cuts being planned by councils across the country has been laid bare in a secret document, seen by the Observer on condition the council is not revealed, which details every single service likely to disappear in one inner London local authority. Every council will have a similar document: a map of misery for the next four years.
The London council report has been drawn up by officials in response to the government's comprehensive spending review, which laid out heavy cuts for local authorities. It illustrates just how much local communities are likely to be disrupted. It lists the potential risks of the cutbacks, including "deterioration of estates leading to antisocial behaviour" and "reduction in overall standards of cleanliness for litter, detritus and fly-tipping".
Anna Turley, deputy director of the New Local Government Network think-tank, warned that the spending review was going to be "devastating" for local government. "We are starting to see how this will affect people's lives," she said.
The London report provides a strong illustration of what is to come. A cabinet member at the London council said: "The invisible services – the support in the home behind closed doors that is enormously expensive – will have to remain. Those are the people with the highest needs. So we have no choice but to cut the more visible, popular services that will bring protests – the luncheon clubs, the play services, the youth groups, the breakfast clubs. And those lunches are important because they are really good at reducing isolation."
The government insists that authorities can make huge savings through efficiencies, but the councillor said that would not be enough. "It is such a horrible situation. It will make councils look really mean-spirited. But there is no other option."
To give a sense of the scale of the challenge, councillors estimate that to maintain services at the current level in the face of the cuts would require three annual rises in council tax of 30% each. That isn't an option, the councillor said. That is why the council has drawn up plans for 60% cuts over three years to voluntary sector services in "housing and adult social care". That will hit lunches for pensioners but also benefit and welfare advice and community groups.
The document warns that "high levels of protests… to councillors and MPs" are likely and that "people with moderate needs could become more dependent". Day centres for older people with mental health problems will be merged, children's centres closed and the number of libraries run directly by the council reduced. The report warns of "negative media coverage" about library closures.
There are also fears about a decline in the local environment. The document outlines plans to:
■ "Stop carrying out repairs [on council properties] not required by statute, for example, easing windows and replacing toilet seats." (Saving: £500,000 in a year.)
■ "Stop carrying out decorations following repairs" but instead give vouchers to people to undertake work themselves. (Saving: £300,000 in one year.)
■ "Stop non-essential communal repairs like… adjusting doors, cleaning blocked gutters, repairing window furniture." (Saving: £250,000 in one year.)
The report also promises to "review cleansing frequencies required" on roads, parks, open spaces and estates to keep them "free from litter, detritus and refuse". And it will question whether roads can be repaired less often.
"Expect more potholes," said the council cabinet member, who added that his area would start to visibly decline. "People may not see the change in their neighbourhood straightaway, but in six or 12 months they will." The council also has plans to save £50,000 by switching off lighting on some streets late at night.
It is not yet known how cuts to specific grants will affect the council but the report warns that the community and safety budget could be cut by 50%, hitting projects for homelessness and the funding of evidence-gathering for antisocial behaviour, according to the councillor. A slump in a regeneration fund will also mean the end of programmes targeting specific estates to help the long-term unemployed, he added.
Assistance for people returning to fitness after heart attacks, strokes or injuries will be limited to the "highest priority clients" – something which is happening across the board. "It is about paring things back to the statutory minimum," said the councillor. "The force of the cuts is such that we have no choice. The problem is that lives do not come in neat little packages like that – people have needs and our ability to meet those needs will be hampered."
The report also shows that the council is looking for ways to raise money, including increasing fees for leisure centres above inflation to bring them more in line with private gyms – something that "will impact particularly on concessionary groups," it warns.
The revelation comes as figures show that almost three-quarters of councils are planning to increase charges over the next three years. Research by Ipsos Mori for BDO, a company that offers advisory services to the public sector, found that local authorities were most likely to target transport and adult education.
Andy Mahon, a partner at BDO, said: "Local authorities are caught between a rock and a hard place, with massive cuts to central government grants being imposed alongside a council tax freeze." A Department for Communities and Local Government spokeswoman said councils would have to be innovative. She added: "We will be announcing the details of the local government finance settlement shortly. Councils may have some tough decisions ahead, but we are giving them the means to protect frontline services with significant new freedoms to share services, increase transparency and put everything they do under the spotlight."
A source added that councils should not even think of touching frontline services until they had driven down costs in back offices, cut the pay of their chief executives and stamped out all "crazy non-jobs" such as development officers.
the Observer
