It figures? A look at the real spending on English public libraries 2007/12

There has been some debate about Ed Vaizey’s claim of £820m “investment” by local authorities into public libraries over the last year and the figure of £1 billion or more I mentioned yesterday as the high water mark a few years ago. Tim Coates has very kindly provided me with the Cipfa figures for the last five or six years that sheds some light on the matter.  First off, it’s important to say that these figures are for England only:

So that’s a 16% reduction in real terms over the first two years of the coalition government. An observer could be drawn to conclude that there’s no wonder there’s pressure on the service with a figure like that.  However, the inflation figure is contentious in that a large part of library budget is wages and, due to the pay freeze – and indeed to the reduction in pay experienced by many staff due to the loss of extra pay for weekend and evening working – councils will not be experiencing  inflation at the same rate as you or me.  Mr Coates argues that, along with cuts to book costs etc, the net effect is effectively nil. On the other hand, councils are experiencing inflation in other ways and so it does serve at least as a guide.  I have used the Bank of England inflation calculator for these figures if you want to check them. If anyone knows of any research done on the “real” inflation rate that library services are experiencing, do please let me know. 

Another point of debate is capital.  This is the cost of new buildings, refurbishments etc, amongst other things.  2011/12 stood up remarkably well in this regard.  How this came about is not clear to me, although conversion to self-service machines (which are put in to save on staffing costs) may be a factor, although there were new builds and refurbs as well. If you strip this out, it is obvious that revenue is the one that took the dive, recording a whopping decrease from high to current low if inflation is fully adjusted, with all the caveats about this noted above.

A big point amongst campaigners – notably once more Tim, who supplied these figures and is one of the few outside of library authorities that keeps track of them – is that the percentage of the revenue budget that goes to repay corporate costs in each council seems to go up and down for no easily apparent reason.  Have a look at these percentages for example:

Something is certainly going on here but it is not immediately clear what it is. One should also note that the seven quoted above are not random but rather councils which have had notable cuts, or are planning them, in their libraries.  Some would say that it is this and other decisions by councils which is a main factor in the cuts to front-line library services. Others would blame the coalition in its entirety.  The truth probably lies somewhere inbetween.

The least therefore we can say about these figures is that there has been a significant reverse in the spending trend and the most is that three more years of the same trend would mean the effective end of the local public library network.  Where you are on this continuum is up to you.  It is also, of course, due to the localised and variable nature of the cuts, up to where you live. 

“The real issue is whether the DCMS and their strategic agencies,  responsible under the 1964 Act for “superintending” library authorities, are analysing the data and asking questions or is it left to campaigners to analyse the data over several years to track trends and identify problems. Are there piles of CIPFA reports sitting unread and gathering dust in the cellars of the DCMS and ACE/MLA? Does the LGA or the SCL maintain any data base to allow comparative analysis over five or ten years? Is the Minister provided with a comprehensive analysis and not just one year’s summary data?” Desmond Clarke

“Previous analysis of CIPFA data has shown that corporate service charges imposed on library authorities have escalated by 70% as a proportion of revenue in the past decade. This is an issue often raised privately by heads of service and was highlighted at the Hampshire conference attended by several council leaders and library portfolio holders.” Frances Hendrix on Lis-Pub-Libs

Completely unconnected to this but something which needed drawing attention to is the debate about who first compared the state of affairs in libraries to the cuts brought about by Dr Beeching to the railways.  The earliest known reference so far is by a Conservative shadows library minister (Mark Field MP) in October 2006. His words may now seem to some oddly prophetic:

“The Conservative Party is preparing valuable steps in making that action a possibility in councils up and down the country. If not then I fear that in ten years time we may see a very different library service than we have been used to and one that most people in the country will regret. The Government has not yet given the task to a Dr Beeching so I hope that we still have a chance to protect the service for our children and grandchildren.”

News

• Ann Cleeves interview for Shetland – Telegraph. “Cleeves does, however, have a core of steel and this is exposed, just briefly, when talk turns to library closures. We meet at Newcastle’s Lit and Phil Library where Cleeves likes to write, with bookshelves towering over us. She says, quietly but with conviction, “It is absolutely appalling – we are becoming philistines.”
• Cuts? What cuts? – Good Library Blog. “if libraries are being closed and book funds being cut, it does seem more sensible to ask whether councils are giving proper priority to front line services in their normal management of public libraries. One wonders whether they are managing their overhead costs properly That is where , it seems to me, the figures suggest the problem lies. At the town hall door”
• Epistemological? What are you talking about? – Question Everything. An analysis of Ed Vaizey’s speech: “All the waffle, nonsense and Boris lite bluster doesn’t disguise the fact that actually library numbers are being savagely cut.” … “A fifth of libraries, cut. Crisis, I do think so.” … “The councils rather than band together to pool the management resources are in nearly all cases cutting the low paid library managers and assistants rather than tackle the duplication that exists across the authorities borders and the shocking high service support costs of running library services.”
• Lost libraries – Public Domain Review. “In the latter half of the 17th century the English polymath Thomas Browne wrote Musaeum Clausum, an imagined inventory of ‘remarkable books, antiquities, pictures and rarities of several kinds, scarce or never seen by any man now living’. Claire Preston explores Browne’s extraordinary catalogue amid the wider context of a Renaissance preoccupation with lost intellectual treasures.”

Local news

• Luton – Do people in Luton love libraries? – Luton Today. “Luton Borough Council is currently consulting on cuts to the library service in Luton, asking for views on two proposals, both of which would see the Sundon Park library close. The library currently has 1,200 ‘active users’, making 32,000 visits a year.” … “Mr Serpell-Morris said the proposed library cutbacks would “decimate the library service throughout the town”, despite “a greater need than ever to encourage children to develop the habit of reading”.”