local government funding formula

Plan to redirect inner-city funds to Tory shires ‘a stitch-up’

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It’s a great shame to politicise this debate. The facts are clear, the funding formula has discriminated against rural areas for years. This story tells us……

Ministers have been accused of a “stitch-up” over proposals to redraw the funding formula for councils in a way critics say will redirect scarce cash from deprived inner cities to affluent Conservative-voting shires.

The proposed changes – which include the recommendation that grant allocations should no longer be weighted to reflect the higher costs of poverty and deprivation – come amid increasing concern over the sustainability of local authority finances.

Leaders of urban councils have written to ministers to complain that under the “grossly unfair and illogical” proposals, potentially tens of millions of pounds would be switched to rural and suburban council areas.

Labour-run areas suffer Tory cuts the most. It’s an ignored national scandal.

Cllr Richard Watts, the leader of Islington council in London and chair of Labour’s local government resources group, said: “The evidence used by the government to justify these changes seems so bizarrely selective that it’s impossible to avoid the conclusion that the review is a brutal political stitch-up aimed at sparing Tory councils and Tory voters from more cuts while piling misery on the most deprived areas of the country.”

Northern cities and metropolitan councils see the so-called fair funding review of local government revenue grant funding as an attempt by ministers to prop up financially struggling authorities and declining services in Tory heartlands. An estimated 76% of Conservative MPs represent constituencies covered by county councils.

The financial collapse of Northamptonshire county council a year ago – and well-publicised difficulties faced by other Tory-run counties such as Somerset and East Sussex – have focused attention on the impact of austerity cuts to local services such as libraries, parks and Sure Start centres in even relatively affluent areas.

Details of the proposed changes were contained in a consultation released by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government just before Christmas. The ministry has insisted the review is a technical exercise designed to simplify grant distribution among English councils and will make the process more transparent.

Town halls urge solution to care crisis

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Local authorities provide care services for more than a million frail and elderly people.

As a result of an ageing population, the Local Government Association estimates that taxpayers will need to find an extra £12 billion a year to fund care for the elderly by 2030, almost double the current annual cost of £14.5 billion. In addition, the number of people having to pay for their own care costs without any support from the state may double from the current number of 128,000 to 264,000.

With Ministers due to publish a White Paper on social care next month and the Cabinet Office launching a consultation on a ‘right to choice’, ensuring that services meet the needs of citizens whilst at the same time being sustainable remains critical. In a rural context – and hot off the press – the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC) has published research on access to social care.

The report investigates social care expenditure across local authority areas and expresses concerns as to whether the current distribution of resources, expenditure and activity is equitable. The report chimes with the work of the RSN which tries to tackle the assumption that local government allocations are robust and fair.