The second Budget also increased funding for the National Health Service, more apprenticeships, efforts to increase productivity and cuts to the welfare budget. In response, the Conservative-led Local Government Association, on behalf of 375 Conservative-, Labour- and Liberal Democrat-run councils, said that further austerity measures were "not an option" as they would "devastate" local services. They said that local councils had already had to make cuts of 40% since 2010 and couldn't make any more cuts without serious consequences for the most vulnerable. After the budget, many departments were told to work out the effect on services of spending cuts from 25% to 40% by 2019–20. This prompted fears that services the public takes for granted could be hit, and concern that the Conservative Party had not explained the policy clearly in its manifesto before the 2015 election.