Funding bail-out gives relief to skint councils

Government announces f5billion to pay off debts

- BY ELLIOT JESSETT

COUNCILS across Merseyside have reported rising costs associated with high needs budgets and in some cases this has meant astronomical, multi-million pound overspends.

This is the same issue experienced by local authorities across the country with many of those organisations raising the alarm about the potential for multiple bankruptcies.

However, those fears will be somewhat allayed after the government announced a £5bn funding package, allocated to the end of this financial year, to pay off 90% of the debts English councils have built up through supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

This intervention comes just days after the Local Government Association (LGA) warned that eight in 10 English councils would face bankruptcy if they had to honour SEND deficits built up in recent years.