People in the "greatest need" will bear the burden of paying off the record levels of debt left by Labour, a Government minister has said. Faced with condemnation of more than £1 billion of cuts to local government funding in England, Bob Neill said tackling the "economic mess" was the first thing that needed to be done in order to provide sustainable public services. Former communities and local government secretary John Denham said the "huge cuts" would hit the poorest hardest. Mr Neill was drowned out by uproar from Labour benches as he replied: "Those in greatest need ultimately bear the burden of paying off the debt..." CLG Secretary Eric Pickles has given details of the £1.166 billion reductions in grants to local government. The £29 billion "formula grant was not being reduced this year. Mr Pickles said where revenue grants had been reduced no local authority would face a cut of more than 2%. The CLG and its quangos would face a cut of 10% in its running costs for 2010-11. CLG also confirmed the £100 million in-year cut from the national affordable housing programme. The savings will be made from programmes where funding has been ‘announced but not yet allocated’. The department also confirmed a further £50m cut – which has also already been announced – will be made to the Kickstart scheme to get stalled developments off the ground. Read details of the allocations and the transcript of Eric Pickles’ speech on the CLG website.
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