Northern UK cities suffered the hardest from austerity - report

Cities in the north of England were hit the hardest by austerity in 2018 highlighting the differences between urban areas and rural areas, the latest report from the Centre of Cities highlighted on Monday.

The report from the think-tank revealed that seven out of the 10 cities that endured the largest cuts are in the North East, North West or Yorkshire, and that on average northern cities saw a cut of 20% to their local council spending on public services.

The report suggests there is a “city and country” divide and argues that in its review of public spending the Treasury must find extra funding for all councils. For every person living in a city, there has been an average spending cut of £386 compared to a spending cut per non-city dweller of £172.

Demographic changes and more people living in cities has driven up the demand for council spending with the number of cities that are spending over half their budget on social care services rising by eight times last year when compared to 2009.

Not only do cities suffer the most, those in Northern regions specifically have been the hardest hit by these spending cuts in public services. Local authority spending in general has fallen nationally by half since 2010, but areas such as Liverpool, Blackburn and Barnsley have faced average cuts that were twice as large as those seen in southern cities.

Barnsley has been the city hardest hit, with a reduction of 40% in its day-to-day spending on social care services.

On a per capita basis on the other hand, it was Liverpool that saw the largest reduction. Its £441m cut to spending equated to a £816 fall for every resident in the city.

In absolute terms, London was by far the hardest hit. The capital has had a total of £3.9bn removed from services spending.

Andrew Carter, the chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: “Councils have managed as best they can but the continued singling out of local government for cuts cannot continue. Fairer funding must mean more funding for cities.”