Labour councils in England hit harder by austerity than Tory areas
Labour councils have borne the brunt of local government cuts over a decade of austerity, according to a new analysis by the Guardian. It highlights for the first time the extent to which poorer, largely Labour-held areas of the country had their funding slashed on average by more than a third, while more affluent, largely Conservative areas were more protected. The analysis, published on Monday and carried out with Sigoma, a special interest group for councils in metropolitan areas, comes exactly 10 years since the then Conservative chancellor, George Osborne, announced the deepest period of cuts to public service spending since the second world war. In his budget speech on 22 June, 2010, Osborne said his plans would be fair and would protect “the most vulnerable in society” while eliminating the government’s budget deficit. But the new analysis reveals that, on average, Labour councils saw their spending power reduced by 34%, while the average Conservative council saw an equivalent decline of less than a quarter (24%). Of the 50 councils which saw the deepest budget …