Local councils deserve a round of applause – they’re doing a tough job

There’s no national storytelling of the range of services that councils provide – and as a result, we don’t have the same emotional attachment to them as we do to the NHS, writes Chris Twigg

Councils have experienced, on average, a real-term cut in core funding of 50 per cent since 2011 (Getty)

Every year my brother and his Navy mates, both those still serving and former servicemen, get together. I am struck by their camaraderie and kinship that has lasted over 20 years. It’s the same tone that’s celebrated in national campaigns on TV and across the UK to celebrate the Navy and its national importance.

Where I work, people talk fondly about their memories of local government, the councillors and workers that have inspired them and the impact of our projects. But local government isn’t celebrated. Not nationally, not locally. And it needs to be. Because it’s doing a tough job that’s only getting tougher and tougher.

Councils have experienced on average a real term cut in core funding of 50 per cent since 2011. On top of that, council workers have had a real terms cut in pay over the last ten years.