Is Your Local Council Going Bust?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2018
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Child services in Northampton are under pressure - and it's partly due to where long-distance lorry drivers choose to take a pee.
In fact, Northampton County Council as a whole is under huge financial pressure and earlier this week seven MPs from the county called for government commissioners to take over after the council announced that it would not be able to balance its budget by the end of the financial year - leading it to put a block on any new expenditure.
In this programme, David Aaronovitch explores the causes of financial pressures on local authorities (including what lorry drivers have to do with it) and how widespread the financial crisis is throughout England.
Where have councils had money cut? Which areas have received increased funding? And what does this ultimately mean for the future of local services?
CONTRIBUTORS
Sam Read, Politics Reporter for BBC Radio Northampton
Rob Whiteman, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy
Jennifer Glover of the Local Government Information Unit - a think tank paid for by local authorities
Colin Copus, Professor of Local Government at De Montfort University
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Aronovich. You step inside and join me in getting brief on the big issues by people who know what they're on about. |
| 0:08.9 | And when you've been brief, please let us know what you think by writing a review or rating us on iTunes or your podcast provider. |
| 0:15.6 | And if you'd like, please recommend us to just about anyone you can think of, really. |
| 0:20.1 | And a thanks to those of you who've recently reviewed us, including Marty 555 and SLC 247. |
| 0:27.1 | If you find this program useful, you might like other editions of the briefing room. |
| 0:31.1 | For example, you could listen to the one we did about the Parole Board, |
| 0:34.7 | in light of the announcement that victims of the serial sex offender John Warboys |
| 0:38.5 | can challenge the parole board's decision to release him from prison. This week, I'm getting |
| 0:44.2 | briefed on why there's a crisis in local government in England and what that could mean for you. |
| 0:49.9 | So take your seat in the briefing room. |
| 0:55.7 | It's rubbish, isn't it, the council? |
| 0:57.9 | All the money they spend on silly things, |
| 1:01.2 | and they've got no money for important things, have they? |
| 1:03.9 | I think it's awful, absolutely awful, |
| 1:06.5 | and I think somebody should be held to account for it. |
| 1:09.0 | You know, they're in a position of trust, |
| 1:12.4 | serving the people and they haven't done it. They haven't. I'm a bit upset actually that |
| 1:17.4 | basically the roads are in an appalling state and now they're just not going to get repaired. |
| 1:23.5 | Social care is on its knees and that's just going to get worse, |
| 1:27.9 | which means that bed blocking is going to continue to get worse. |
| 1:31.5 | So the hospitals are going to end up so full that people can't cope. |
| 1:36.4 | When I watch, I think people who are less fortunate than us must be having a really, really tough time |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.