The leader of the council has criticised the Government's spending plans, saying local authorities should be given more power to get the economy moving.

Sutton Council leader Councillor Ruth Dombey spoke on BBC Radio 4's flagship current affairs programme Radio 4 this morning about the Government's spending plans for 2015-16, which were announced earlier today and include a further 10 per cent cut in grants to local government.

She was asked about how Sutton Council has coped with previous Government grant cuts and told the show's listeners the key is not to cut services but to find new ways of providing them and gave the example of Carshalton Library moving out of it's former home in an old building in The Square to its new home in Westcroft Leisure Centre.

She said the move saved money that was being spent on keeping the old building open and allowed it to be kept open for longer hours.

Chancellor George Osborne announced details of the Government's spending review at lunchtime.

It includes the 10 per cent cut to local government grants and plans to spend £3bn on housing.

Coun Dombey said: "It's time for central government to hand more to local government because we can do things better - the top down, one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work because every area is different.

"The big issue is house building. The reason houses aren't being built isn't because of planning laws [that were recently relaxed], it's because we're in a recession and no-one is spending money on them.

"If local authorities could borrow more money, they could build much-needed homes and it would get the economy moving."

The chancellor also announced further freezes to council tax, a cap on public sector pay rises and more, amounting to £11.5bn of cuts.

Coun Dombey had to wake up at 4.45am in order to get to the BBC's studios to speak on Today but said the experience was "absolutely fascinating".