'Don't cut too quick' - Denham

The coalition government is in danger of making too many public sector spending cuts too quickly, John Denham, shadow secretary of state for communities and local government, told the Local Government Group conference today (Thursday 8 July 2010).

These short-term measures could damage local services and waste money, he said, with projects being scrapped that were already halfway through.

“There can be no excuse for the unfairness which visits much bigger cuts on some very poor communities than on those which are much more wealthy,” he added

Mr Denham, a former cabinet minister and a former councillor, said that while the deficit must be tackled, plans set out by the previous Labour government had been tough enough.

“Much of our concern must be about the scale of the cuts which are coming, but also about how best local public spending decisions are taken against this difficult background,” he said.

“At all costs we must avoid a creeping, insidious pessimism, where services must inevitably get worse, when delivery is fragmented, inefficiency entrenched.”

The new government had a right to be judged fairly, said Mr Denham, which would take time. “Today, though, the record is mixed. For each welcome measure of decentralisation – continuing our journey reducing ring-fencing, for example – there have been moves in the other direction.”

He expressed concern that the work done between central government and the LG Association on Total Place could be lost. Total Place had demonstrated that better services could be provided more efficiently by bringing together all the money that was spent on particular problems, he said. However, this depended on cross-government commitment.

“The early signs are not good. Instead of creating the conditions for bringing public money together, across services, to provide joined up and coherent solutions, many initial decisions across government are fragmenting spending into more and more, smaller and smaller pots.”

Download John Denham's speech to conference