Increasingly we see Conservative controlled authorities in crisis with their finances despite less cuts and preferential treatment when it comes to the Government’s funding formula.
Last year the ‘negative RSG’ funding by the Conservative Government saw Surrey County Council as one of the biggest winners receiving £17.3m from the new scheme after previously pocketing £24.1m of transition grant in 2016. It’s outrageous that the Government chooses to bail out councils in better-off areas of the south when poorer councils in the North and Midlands in areas with higher need are losing out.
Despite their preferential treatment, Conservative controlled council’s losing control of their finances. Some examples of this include:
- Northamptonshire County Council went effectively bankrupt, becoming the first local authority in two decades to issue a section 114 notice.
- East Sussex County Council is cutting its services back to the“legal minimum” as a result of financial pressure.
- Surrey County Council’s chief finance officer resigned last month following warnings that the authority ‘does not have sustainable budgets’.
- Lancashire County Council’s finances have been described as being at ‘tipping point’ in a recent report by Grant Thornton auditors.
The Conservative Party is showing themselves both unfair and incompetent when it comes to managing money. Nottingham people and others across the North and Midlands are losing out on millions of pounds of extra funding which would help support the vital council services they rely on.