Public libraries in ‘crisis’ as councils cut services

More than 180 council-run libraries have either closed or been handed over to volunteer groups in the UK since 2016, BBC analysis has found.

More deprived communities were four times more likely to have lost a publicly-funded library in that time, while 2,000 jobs have also been lost.

The figures “laid bare the scale of the crisis facing public libraries”, a body that supports the insitutions across the UK said.

A government spokesperson said it recognised “pressures” on library services and it was “committed to giving stability back to local councils”.

Freedom of Information requests sent to every library authority in the UK and Arts Council England data show the country has lost one in 20 libraries since 2016, either by closing them completely or moving them over to volunteer-run groups.

About 950, a third of those remaining, have had their hours reduced and at least three councils have at least halved their provision since 2016.

The poorest areas were around four times more likely to lose a local venue than the richest when permanent closures were mapped to the government’s Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) – a system which ranks areas according to income, living conditions and other poverty measures.

The BBC also found dozens more closures are possible in the coming year.

While a study by The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) found library visits increased by 71% between 2021-22 and 2022-23, its chief executive Rob Whiteman said funding still lagged behind the “rising demand for services”.

“These figures lay bare the scale of the crisis facing public libraries and confirm what we have long suspected: libraries are hit hardest in the very areas that need them most,” said Isobel Hunter MBE, the chief executive of the Libraries Connected charity, which has members spanning most library services in the UK except Scotland.

Most council-run libraries offer more than just book-lending facilities.

Some offer stay-and-play sessions for children, literacy clubs and access to computers among other things. Some are set up as warm spaces for people struggling with fuel poverty in winter.

Former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen and author of more than 200 books including We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, spent much of his childhood reading in Pinner Library in North London.

He said reducing people’s access to libraries was an “act of cruelty”.

“Every time I hear of a library being closed I find it absolutely horrifying,” Mr Rosen said.

“Sometimes people don’t see that, people see cuts and think it’s saving money or people don’t really need it, but I see it as a form of deprivation.”

In some parts of the UK volunteers have stepped in to save their local libraries since 2016.

In 2018, about 9,000 people in East Sussex signed a petition to stop the county council from shutting seven of its venues – a move it said would save £653,000 a year. The proposals were approved later that year.

But in the village of Ringmer near Lewes, volunteers pulled together to keep the service going.

Wini Buckwell, 17, campaigned to save the library in 2019.

“It was like that space was just being torn out of the community,” they said.

“It was awful, really. My mum and I, well, my whole family really got in on the whole, save the library scheme and campaigning to get them to not shut it. Unfortunately, it did get cut off from the national funding.”

They enjoyed summer reading programmes there when they were younger and used to go there every week after school.

In 2021, the A-level student volunteered with the library. They donated some of their own books and helped to reshelve it.

Now Ringmer Village Library operates a book lending service four days a week, partly using the remaining stock from East Sussex Council.

It has increased its opening hours since being council operated, is a warm space during winter and runs a number of community clubs – all with a team of around 45 volunteers.

But Alex Kittow, chief executive of Libraries Unlimited, which runs 54 libraries on behalf of the council across Devon and Torbay, said some community groups have struggled to keep a similar level of service going without taxpayer funding.

“In the cost of living crisis people have to work longer and are not able to volunteer,” he said.

“There are concerns about volunteers who aren’t part of a network and the danger is we have more telephone boxes with books in that are run down; that have donations of books that people don’t want to read, that are poor quality and it’s not a curated collection.”

Although upper-tier local councils such as county councils and unitary authorities have a statutory duty to provide a “comprehensive library service”, the definition of this has changed in recent years, according to Louis Coiffait-Gunn, the chief executive of the library and information service, CILIP.

“The public have a statutory right to a public library service that’s efficient and comprehensive,” she said.

“Now the way that previous ministers have interpreted that in recent years means we’ve seen a decline in the service, a decline in funding.”

At Birmingham City Council, which declared effective bankruptcy in 2023 over a longstanding equal pay claim, the authority is consulting on plans to reduce its 35 libraries down to 25.

Campaigners in the city have asked for the process to be slowed and said “devastating measures” were being proposed over a short timescale.

Community groups in Nottingham and Croydon are also among those launching protests against proposed measures in their areas.

The BBC analysis found a patchwork provision of library services across the UK. Some councils such as Oxfordshire and South Gloucestershire increased the number of libraries they ran in their area, despite a reduction in staff since 2016.

However, around a third had reduced services and some had more than halved the number of council-run libraries in their areas.

Sunderland went from having 11 libraries in 2016 to just three in 2023, losing 65 staff members in that time.

A spokesman for Havering Borough Council, which is consulting on plans to close four more libraries in north-east London, said the proposals were “one of many painful decisions” it would need to take until a better funding deal could be sought from central government.

A government spokesperson has previously said it would bring stability back to local government by allowing councils to budget over multiple years.

The spokesperson added: “Public libraries play an important role in communities by providing spaces for people from all walks of life to access books, work and learn.

“We recognise the pressures they face, and are committed to giving stability back to local councils so services such as these can best meet the needs of their communities.”

Additional reporting: Alex Homer, Paul Bradshaw and Lauren Woodhead

More about this story

The Shared Data Unit makes data journalism available to news organisations across the media industry, as part of a partnership between the BBC and the News Media Association.

Read more about the Local News Partnerships here.