'The government must reform their funding' says Kent County Council

The deputy leader for finance at the Kent County says the government must change the way it funds its services.

Peter Oakford believes until this is done all council across the U.K. will continue to struggle financially.

It comes on the second day of the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.

The KCC must save over £100 million across the next two years. As a result, this year has already seen plenty of cuts to services such as Youth Clubs and SEND transport.

The children's centres in Sheerness and Margate could also close, their consultation ended yesterday.

Peter says these cuts won't end unless more is done by the government, he said: "We're cutting into the lean, it's getting very difficult and we are impacting peoples lives and it will go on.

"This is until there is proper sensible funding for social care which is the largest spend in the KCC.

"What we are saying to MPs and the government is we need reform. We need them to look at areas of high pressure on local authority and they need to reform because if we are going to be more accountable for more areas then the funding needs to reflect that.

"We will keep having to make reductions to our services and over time we will become a provider of only statutory services which means anything we do that is non statutory, which are things the most people in Kent get to see and enjoy, will slowly disappear."