Councils need to cut annual spending by £11bn over the next four financial years, the Local Government Association has warned.

Speaking at the LGA’s annual conference yesterday, the association’s finance director Stephen Jones attempted to spell out the scale of cuts that would be needed to address a public sector annual budget deficit that could hit a record of £200bn in 2009/10 . He said £11bn would need to be cut from spending on services including schools, policing and roads each year.

This £11bn is more than 10% of the £105bn local authorities spend annually on local services. The LGA said £4.5bn of the £11bn cuts could be made up by cutting the amount of inspection and regulation of council services.

However, beyond that, he said councils would need to make big decisions about which services to cut and how they could use properties more efficiently. Councils could make more efficiency savings by consolidating staff into fewer buildings following government initiatives like Total Place.

The Total Place plan wants public sector bodies to share information on properties they occupy so they can occupy some buildings together and sell off others. More details from Total Place pilot projects are expected in the pre-Budget report on 9 December.

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