“Foreign aid spending will outstrip the amount given to councils to collect bins, install street lights and run local services for the first time next year, official government estimates show.
Forecasts buried in the Treasury’s Budget book reveal that spending on international development will hit £9.3bn in 2017/18 – overtaking local government spending of £8.2bn that year.
Tory MPs questioned whether at a time when councils are under “massive pressure” from cuts it was right to be spending “shedload of taxpayers’ money” on foreign aid. …
… Day-to-day spending at the Department for International Development [Dfid] will increase from £7.2bn to £10.4bn over the next five years, according to Treasury estimated released last month,
Over the same period spending on local government will drop from £10.8bn to £6.2bn as the government cuts central funding for councils. The crossover will happen in 2017/18.
Ministers justified the cut at the time by arguing extra council tax raising powers and the right to keep more money raised from business rates would counter the impact.
However council bosses have reacted with fury at the cuts from Treasury funding and said the new powers will not cover the financial black hole.
Tory MPs reacted with fury to the idea the government is prioritising foreign aid at a time when, bin collection, protection of the elderly and other council-run services are under pressure from the cuts.
Sir Gerald Howarth, a former Tory shadow minister, said: “We are at the point of facing a real crisis in local government where absolutely essential services, such as care for the elderly, are under massive pressure.
“By contrast Dfid is awash with cash and struggling to find ways of pushing this vast shedload of taxpayers’ money out of the door.
“Politics is about priorities. Surely after all the austerity we need to show the British people that we’ve got out priories right? The priority must be to look after the vulnerable citizens at home and to strengthen our defences in the face of very dangerous turbulent world out there.”
The majority of local authorities across the country have taken advantage of new powers to increase council tax by close to 4 per cent in the next financial year, partly to help fund social care.
However the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils, said the new powers would not cover the major cuts in centralised funding from Whitehall.
An LGA spokesman said: “Councils are increasingly having to do more with less and to try and protect services, such as caring for the elderly, protecting children and reducing homelessness, in the face of growing demand. This means having less to spend on many of the other services people value, such as filling potholes and funding leisure facilities like pools, gyms and parks, libraries and museums.
“The next few years will continue to be a challenge. While extra council tax flexibilities will help some councils offset some of the funding pressures they face, it will not prevent the need for further cutbacks to local services. Many will continue to have to make significant reductions to local services to plug funding gaps.”
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman defended the decision to spend 0.7 per cent of foreign aid, noting how money had been used to help tackle the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Asked about the failure of other rich countries to reach the 0.7 spending level, the spokesman said they should “step up to the plate” and meet the commitment.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/14/foreign-aid-spending-to-overtake-council-funding-next-year/
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