Statement from Council Leader on Government's Spending Review

Councillor Richard Farnell

Councillor Richard Farnell said: "The Chancellor's statement was bad news for the borough of Rochdale

"Local councils face the biggest reduction of all government departments.Yesterday, the Chancellor announced a further 24 per cent is to be cut.That means unpalatable cuts in front line services to children,the elderly and the most needy.

"The Council has already been forced to cut more than £140 million from local services since 2010 - almost half of our available budget. A further cut of 24 per cent have a devastating impact on local families.

"Services are already cut back to the bone and the Council is struggling to meet the increasing demands on our services. Further cuts announced by the Chancellor will have huge consequences for thousands of Rochdale residents. We could soon be facing a situation where the government's cuts are so deep and painful we may not be able to meet our statutory and legal duties to provide a wide range of services from looking after the disabled and elderly to enforcing hygiene standards in shops.

"While the Chancellor has climbed down on further cuts to the Police, we still have 150 fewer police officers in Rochdale and crime levels are rising.

"The government is forcing through a Council Tax rise of almost 4 per cent next year. It has axed a special grant which allowed Rochdale Council to freeze the Council Tax for the past two years. On top of this, the Chancellor has told the Council to increase Council tax by two per cent above the permitted 1.9 per cent increase - in order to plug the huge funding shortfall in looking after the elderly and people leaving hospital. Even this will not be enough to meet the ever increasing demands on adult care.

"The government is handing over £2.3 billion to developers to build 400,000 new homes for sale - yet there is nothing to build homes for rent which are desperately needed in our borough, The poorest will face cuts in Housing Benefit and housing associations - including RBH - will have their income slashed meaning cutbacks on repairs and improvements to homes.

"The chancellor claims school budgets are protected, but our schools face an 8 per cent cut in real terms which will hit our children's education. Non protected services such as speech therapy, physiotherapy and music lessons could be hit by government cutbacks.

"Labour councillors will be working hard over the coming months to keep the Council Tax to a minimum and to try to protect essential services to our children, the elderly and most vulnerable. But with the scale of the cuts imposed on Rochdale every single year since the Tories came to power in 2010 make that an extremely daunting task.

"We will not be informed of the exact amount the government is allocating to Rochdale until 24 December. It looks like Rochdale residents will be in for a bleak Christmas."