Facts About Local Bodies.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20622, 11 August 1932, Page 8

Facts About Local Bodies.

The edition of the Local Authorities Handbook, published this week, is neither easy nor pleasant to read. It gives statistical information about 632 local bodies, a total which does not include 45 hospital boards and innumerable education authorities. Last year these 632 bodies, despite a heavy curtailment of Government expenditure, sp-ent £22,174,524 as compared with £22,061,088 in the previous year and £6,796,314 in 1913-14. Of this, £ 6,119,030, or considerably more than was raised in rates, was paid out in wages and salaries to 45,201 employees. At the end of 1931 the total local government debt was £65,692,606, an increase of well over £1,500,000 during the year and an increase of about £50,000,000 on the total for 1910-11. At present the debt per head of population is £4B 2s 2d and the annual charge £3 3s lid. These figures mean that, despite the strenuous national effort to cut down the cost of government, the increase in local body expenditure is still unchecked. This does not mean that local bodies are more extravagant than they were, for unemployment schemes have greatly increased their responsibilities; but it does show that an increasingly large burden is being put on the least efficient part of the country's administrative machinery. Were the present system of local government economical and up-to-date, the decentralising tendency which the figures quoted seem to indicate could be welcomed. But the system is so involved and wasteful that it is impossible not to feel alarmed at its growing importance in the national economy.