Failure to fix council funding crisis threatens Tory election pledge, adviser warns

Andy Haldane, a former chief economist at the Bank of England, says: ‘What gets cut is often the investment needed to grow out of a hole.’ Photograph: Handout

The government’s top levelling-up adviser has warned ministers that failure to tackle the funding crisis for councils across England is threatening one of the Conservatives’ flagship 2019 election promises.

Andy Haldane, the chair of the government’s levelling-up advisory council, said a “root and branch rethink” of local authority funding was urgently required to prevent a fresh round of ever-deeper cuts to local services.