Who does what in Ipswich?

‘Why isn't the Council doing something about it?' can be heard and read quite often. During a long economic recession, as budgets shrink and demands rise, perhaps it is the right time to look, in broadest terms, at those areas over which each council has responsibility:-

Ipswich Borough CouncilIpswich Society Council logos

• Benefits (esp. housing benefit)

• Business advice and support

• Cemeteries and crematorium

• Communities and health

• Council Tax

• Environmental health

• Housing

• Arts & entertainment, sport & fitness, parks

• Licenses and permits

• Parking, transport and streets

• Planning, building and conservation

• Sustainability

• Waste recycling

Suffolk County Council

• Children, families and learning

• Jobs, careers and business

• Council and democracy

• Adult social care and health

• Roads and transport

• Planning, waste and environment

• Fire, rescue and emergencies

• Community and safety

• Births, deaths and ceremonies

• Culture, heritage and leisure

“It's important to remember that the SCC figures include education funding which is passed straight to Local Authority schools without touching the sides. Similarly the IBC figures include Housing Benefit payments which aren't really IBC spend.

It's notoriously difficult to get a true picture of what an authority actually spends as ‘ordinary people' would recognise it. The gross expenditure figures give a good idea of the scale of the operations and the relative difference in scale between the Borough and the County, though.

From the annual statements of accounts for each authority for 2014/2015:-

  • IBC - £139 million
  • SCC - £1.232 billion”

Quotation from David Ellesmere, Leader of Ipswich Borough Council