The Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend James Jones, has raised the issue of cuts in Government spending to councils such as Liverpool.
In a speech in the Social Care debate in the House of Lords, he asked “why the north-west seems to be targeted more severely than, say, places such as London, Bournemouth or Brighton” adding that for people to accept drastic cuts “there has to be a sense of fairness across the country”.
Bishop James said that “there is genuine fear in the city over the impact of 25% cuts in adult social care over the next four years and 25% cuts in children’s services.”
Acknowledging the work the council is trying to do in partnerships to get the best value for money he commented:
“It is demoralising for the city council to analyse the statistics across the country and discover that, far from there being a level playing field, there are staggeringly steep differences in funding across the nation, which makes the pain of applying these cuts even more severe.”
The Bishop called for the minister to “please review the settlement and give us an assurance that these cuts are fair across the country.”
Liverpool City Council has had to save £141 million over the last two years and estimates another £143 million will have to be found in the next four years.
For more information, visit www.liverpool.gov.uk/budget
