From social care to special educational needs and homelessness, many of the most urgent public service challenges confront local rather than national government. Some of these are highly visible and obvious: rising numbers of rough sleepers, deteriorating roads, hospital waiting lists caused in part by social care shortages. Other problems are more hidden, except from those affected. Examples include the worsening crisis in residential care for children and the huge number of families in temporary accommodation.
English councils bore the brunt of some of the earliest and deepest cuts to public spending under austerity (local government functions and budgets are devolved, so the situation in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales is different). Between 2010-11 and 2019-20, central government funding was cut by 55% in real terms.
