Councillors in Northumberland have clashed once again over the level of Government funding for the local authority.
The subject has been the topic of fierce debate in recent weeks, after the Conservative-led administration claimed the amount provided by Government had left the council around £2.5 million short of where it had expected to be in December. However, members of the Labour opposition have argued that the council’s core budget has been increased by more than £20 million.
The row continued at Monday’s meeting of the council’s corporate services and economic growth scrutiny committee. Deputy leader Coun Richard Wearmouth criticised the Government for removing certain funding streams from the council.
He said: “The rural services delivery grant, we expected to be about £3.7 million this year and that has gone. We lost that, other councils have, as a result, got some funding from the Recovery Fund – we haven’t, and we are unique in the North East in that sense.
“Other pressures include national insurance, and we have to find an additional sum of money for enhanced recycling. There are other bits and pieces but we are down £2.5 million on where we hoped to be.
“We have got to make a noise all the time to make sure we get the possible deal. It’s been a little bit troubling that we seem to have new MPs who don’t seem to have put up much of a struggle when it comes to key decisions like the dualling of the A1 and a loss of funding there.
“There have been plenty of others. We must not allow them to stand by and watch the Government strip us of cash.”
Response to Wearmouth’s claims
Coun Wearmouth’s words provoked anger from Labour members. Coun Lynne Grimshaw attacked the previous Government’s record on local Government funding and the A1.
She said: “Fourteen years of your Government and you’re now saying that it is the Labour Government that is causing all these problems? You have had the opportunity for 14 years to lobby your Government to get money and investment into the county.
“As far as dualling the A1 goes, every minister in your Government who held that position has promised that this was going to happen – failure, failure, failure. So don’t talk to me and say it is our Government that has stopped it, it was your Government.
“They are providing more money for children’s care, for social care – they are getting their priorities right. I don’t need any lectures – it doesn’t wash with any of us.”
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, in the 2010s overall funding for councils per person fell by 26% in real terms, with increases in council tax only partially offsetting a 46% fall in funding from central Government.
Labour’s Coun Caroline Ball added: “Do you agree that, in the previous 14 years, every time council tax has gone up, that has been due to the Tory Government?”
Coun Wearmouth replied: “Across those 14 years, a number were spent with a Labour council. We were left with the impact of that.
“We were just about getting it under control, and then we had a Labour Government come in and cut our funding.”
Labour were in charge at County Hall between 2013 and 2017. Between 2009 and 2013, the Liberal Democrats led the council, while the Conservatives have been in power since 2017.
The council’s two-year budget, set last February, forecast £170 million from central Government. In reality, the council has received £190 million.
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