Commenting on the news that the Conservative Government is planning a £200 million cut in Public Health funding, Cllr Gerald Vernon Jackson, Lib Dem Group Leader at the Local Government Association, said:
“This is an incredibly blinkered step for the government to take. Public Health work undertaken by councils includes issues like encouraging people to stop smoking, helping them to take more exercise, supporting immunisation and sexual health awareness programmes and other preventative measures that stop people from falling ill in the first place. We work with local health services to tackle causes of ill health and these tasks will make taking action all the more difficult.
He added: “The Liberal Democrats in government worked hard to protect public health funding – and for it to be returned to local authorities. The Conservatives are now the ones taking an axe to it.”