The gap left by the lack of a snap general election has been quickly filled by announcements that will impact hard on local government.

The £16 billion Crossrail commitment that finally saw the trans-London link move out of the station will be quickly followed by the Comprehensive Spending Review 07 and the Pre-Budget Statement in Parliament this week.

The CSR07 will set out public spending for the next four years and has been the subject of speculation for many months.

David Clark, the SOLACE Director General, says that budgets and finance has risen to the top of chief executives’ concerns in an annual review this month – a SOLACE first.

He said, “You may feel that this is unsurprising, since the British taste for US levels of taxation and Scandinavian levels of public service have always meant that local government faced financial pressures.  But, in fact, it is a big surprise, since no SOLACE survey in the last decade has shown finance as the number one issue of concern to our members. 

“But I think this is understandable.  We may be seeing the toughest settlement for a generation.”