Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski has said he will not oppose the government over council funding after they pledged an extra £8.5 Million for Shropshire Council.
The Government’s provisional settlement, set out in December, would have reduced the overall amount of central government funding for rural councils by over 31% over the four-year period, whereas urban councils would only have received a 22% average cut.
Responding to this Daniel Kawczynski MP informed the Government that he and the Local Authority were unhappy with the offer for Shropshire. The cut in funding seemed to be unfair with Urban Local Authorities receiving a smaller reduction in funding in comparison to their Rural counterparts.
The injustice was perceived to be so great that the Shrewsbury & Atcham MP said he would vote against the Finance Bill if the settlement was not improved.
After Daniel held meetings between Minister Marcus Jones and the leader of the Council Malcolm Pate the Department for Communities and Local Government came forward with a revised offer.
Under the new proposals, Shropshire Council will receive additional funding from central government of £5.5 million in 2016/17 and an extra £3.0 million in 2017/18 compared with the provisional settlement.
Daniel Kawczynski MP said “I am extremely pleased that the Government has come forward with a better offer then the one initially on the table, I made sure they were aware that I and my Council were not happy and that if the situation was not rectified I would have no option but to vote against my Party in the lobby. They have also re-assured the local authority that they will look at this problem of funding disparity between rural and urban councils over the long term”.
The Secretary of State for Local Government Greg Clark MP has also agreed to visit Shropshire in the next three weeks in order to discuss the ongoing problems that rural councils funding being disproportionate to that of urban councils.
Philip Dunne, MP for the Ludlow Constituency, also welcomed the news. Mr Dunne said:
“This funding is very welcome news for Shropshire. We have secured an additional £8.5 million compared to the previous settlement. I have been calling for fairer funding for rural areas for some time, so the announcement of a Fair Funding Review, to consider properly the funding needs of local authorities serving different areas is significant victory for Shropshire.
“We made clear to the Minister that rural councils face unique pressures due to the extra costs of providing services in rural areas, but this had not been fully reflected in the provisional funding settlement. Changes announced this week to the Local Government Settlement show the Minister clearly took on board our concerns.
“I congratulate my colleague Daniel Kawczynski for ensuring that Shropshire Council’s Head of Finance will be included as a member of the Secretary of State’s personal taskforce. This taskforce will advise on a new funding settlement for the future, and work to end the discrepancy between rural and urban funding.”
“We are all aware of the need to get the public deficit under control, and that Local Government has a role to play in reducing expenditure. But similarly, we do not expect rural councils to have to bear an unfair amount of pressure compared to urban authorities, and this new settlement helps to address this concern.”
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