NEWS FEATURE
Braced for attacks on public libraries
CILIP takes legal advice and prepares to lobby as more cuts loom. But are there any other levers left to pull? Yes, there may be, says a public services expert.
IN November the leaders of Kent and Hampshire councils wrote a joint letter to the Prime Minis- ter “to highlight in the strongest terms, the financial crisis facing upper tier local government over the next few years”. It did not mince its words, claiming: “We are facing budget deficits over the next few years of a scale that has never been seen before” and “without funda- mental change… local government will soon go over the cliff edge”. The letter called for legislative changes and specifically highlighted their statutory obligations to provide a library service: “Legislative change is also long overdue to reform outdated and under-resourced statutory obliga- tions, such as the legislation from the 1940s to provide Home to School trans- port provision and the requirement on us to provide a comprehensive library service which is based on legislation from the 1960s.”
Legal test
In reaction to the letter Nick Poole, CEO of CILIP, said: “CILIP is con- cerned about any attempt further to undermine the legal protections in place to guarantee local people access to a quality library service. Far from being out-dated, successful councils across the UK have found that their library offer sits right at the heart of a joined-up strategy for vibrant and inclusive local services.”
He said: “CILIP has taken extensive legal advice from a leading QC on this point and we would also point out to any council considering service reduc- tions that the Act is not the only legal protection for library services. If they wish to avoid a Judicial Review, we would strongly advise elected members in Kent, Hampshire and across the UK to regard their libraries as a fantastic
12 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
opportunity to change local lives for the better.”
Nick adds: “As predicted, the UK’s economic woes have prompted a slew of proposed cuts to public library services.”
At the time of writing, 14 councils are proposing changes with more in early-stage discussion with DCMS. But he added that things were likely to get worse because the bulk of the cuts have been delayed. “What I’m currently hearing is that services have scraped through the 2023-24 budget round, but ‘all bets are off’ when the back-loading of the last budget to 2025 comes into being,” he said. “CILIP is responding to these consultations where appropriate, either directly by writing to councillors or via the councils (sadly, frequently impenetrable) consultation websites. Please do let me know if you’re aware of potential risks to libraries in your area.”
Noise level The situation is unlikely to improve, according to Stuart Hoddinott, a researcher at the Institute for Local Government’s public services team (See CILIP’s Annual Buyers’ Guide 2023 for a full interview). Stuart says that, despite public library services success- fully raising their profiles during the pandemic, and already being the most cut service over the decade of austerity, they should expect more cuts. He said local authority leaders take the path of least resistance and cut where they’ve cut before. All that stops them is the law – legal protections – and local political pressure – and the legal protection given to libraries isn’t strong enough.
“If you look at the areas that were relatively protected during the 2010s, they were road maintenance, waste
Stuart Hoddinott.
collections, planning applications. They were all cut, but cut far less because they were all politically salient. They are areas that councillors get complaints about in their emails.”
He said this lack of salience may not reflect the views of the community, as “libraries provide very important services that are massively appreciated and also benefit some of the worst-off in local authorities. These are people whose voices aren’t necessarily the ones who get into the local paper and who aren’t likely to kick up a big fuss with their local councillor. That has unfortunate ramifications for spending positions.”
Stuart adds that services have bene- fited from ”high profile campaigns to save libraries… and those have often proven to be most successful… [if] you increase the political pain for council- lors in cutting libraries, they will shy away from it.”
January-February 2023
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