Salford's city mayor Paul Dennett has written to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt ahead of today's (Thursday, November 17) Autumn Statement protesting against anticipated £33billion of spending cuts and asserting 'austerity is false economy'.
Mr Dennett is also objecting to a 'u-turn' on the Government's manifesto commitment to protect local council taxpayers from council tax increases and lift the 1 per cent cap on the adult social care levy.
Currently, councils are prevented from increasing council tax beyond 2.99 pc but it is widely expected that Mr Hunt will also lift that ceiling.
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The mayor points out in his letter that council tax has been one of the Government's central mechanisms for 'devolving responsibility for central Government cuts to local authorities since austerity began in 2010'.
"Since 2015, the Treasury's expectations of council tax contributions within the Government's core spending calculations for local government have massively increased nationally by one third to almost £9.7bn," he said.
"At the same tiem, core funding from the Government reduced by £6.3bn, equating to 30pc of 2015/16 funding levels."
Mr Dennett went on to say that the Local Government Association - the collective voice of local councils nationally - has previously estimated that by 2020 councils had lost 60p out of every £1 the Government had provided to spend on local services.
He said that in Salford, in real terms, changes to the way local government is funded have equated to a £232m reduction in the city's revenue budget as a consequence of cuts to funding, resulting in a reduction of 53pc in central government core funding support since 2010.
Mr Dennett argued that council tax is also an 'incredibly uneven and unfair mechanism through which to raise funds' and pays out very differently in different areas of the country.
He said: "In wealthy Surrey, a 1pc increase in council tax would raise around £7m. In Salford, the 16th most deprived local authority in the country according to the Government's own index of multiple deprivation (IMD), the same rise would raise just over £1m.
"Salford already has significant challenges with no-payment of council tax owing to levels of poverty, household income and consequently affordability pressures."
Mr Dennett continued: "Austerity is a false economy. As services from local government and other bodies have collapsed around this country, demand for services has sky-rocketed, requiring costly countermeasures, which could often have been avoided had budgets not been so thoroughly slashed.
"I implore you and your fellow Cabinet colleagues to reconsider your planned increases in the adult social care precept and council tax, and any further cuts to local authority budgets."
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