Ahead of the statement, the Labour Party has highlighted areas where successive years of cuts to local government have had an impact.

Research published by the Labour Party over the last week on services provided by local government has found that:

• Last year over 72,000 children were taken into Local Authority care nationally
• The number of serious child protection cases had doubled in the last seven years, with 500 new cases launched each day.
• More than a million of our elderly people are living with their care needs unmet.
• Almost a fifth of specialist women’s refuges have been forced to close under the Tories and according to Women’s Aid, over 400 women, often with children, were refused a space at a refuge last year.

Commenting ahead of the statement Jeff said:

“Year on year cuts, brought about by this Conservative Government and the coalition before it, have left public services in Manchester stretched to breaking point.

Local Authorities across the country are set to lose 79% of the direct funding that they had in 2010 by 2020.  In Manchester, that equates to a cut of £600 per household.

Theresa May’s Government is letting down the most vulnerable in our society and Philip Hammond’s Spring Statement does nothing to even acknowledge these issues, let alone act on them.”

John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor to the Exchequer has said:

“I believe we are approaching a moment of real national crisis on this. Essential services simply cannot cope with the strain of spending cuts that have now stretched into their eighth year, with no end in sight.

The Chancellor has to rise to the occasion. If he cannot do the right thing and change course, he should stand aside for a Labour government that will.”