The pressures

摘要

Local authorities face a raft of pressures -and the latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics, the day after the LGA's submission to the Autumn Statement, show that population, at least, continues to rise, hitting 70 million by 2027. According to the figures, the number of people over 80 is set to double by 2037, the number over 90 will triple, and those over a hundred will rise from 13,000 in 2012 to 111,000 in 2037 - eight times as many. This may be a longer-term issue than the 2015/16 budgets local government is currently grappling with, but with the care system currently bulging at the seams, it is a problem that is not going to go away. Less attention has been paid to the sharp rise in demand for school places, with an addition 256,000 school places needed by 2014/15.