I agree with a freeze, but not if the budget is then cut next year. There should be "breathing space".
We have to hand back money not spent in Lambeth which is fine. And there was a spending freeze too, but I suspect this was to stop going over-budget.
A bit of an annoyance though is being donated money for education research, then having to hand that back too, if not spent. It cannot be carried over and deducted from other costs the next year.
It's similar where I work (charity where most of the money comes from BIG or DCSF). We have an almighty run in March where everyone is desperately trying to shift underspends left, right and centre. This is not because we have to try to justify the same income in future years but because the funder can't have any underspend. We get penalised if we don't spend everything we've been given, regardless of whether it's needed or not. Makes life very difficult in the final financial quarter as I have to try and balance my own budgets and respond to the huge amount of shuffling money around between various other budgets within the organisation.
I would never have imagined it being so wasteful before I came here but when I see various manifestos pledging public-sector savings, I know for sure it's all there to be saved if better controls were in place.