Hyndburn faces maximum funding cuts from Conservative government

A statement was made by Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles MP, on 19th December 2012 regarding the Conservative-run government funding for district Councils. Cuts range from around 1.3% to 8.8% but Hyndburn will take the biggest hit with a maximum reduction in grants and East Lancashire fares worse than most of the rest of England. Conservative-controlled Ribble Valley will only face a 1.3% reduction and many of the Councils in southern England will actually have their grants increased. A BBC news article has full details of each borough:

BBC News - Eric Pickles outlines funding cuts for England Councils

Council Leader, Cllr Miles Parkinson has spoken in response to the recent settlement announcement:

“The headline figure is a reduction in Council Spending power of 8.8%, the toughest in the country. The figure could have been much worse at over 17% except for strong lobbying by local MP Graham Jones for additional funding of £2.1m not to be withdrawn. The Government finally agreed to continue this extra funding but reduced it by over £900,000. This extra funding will only last 2 years and after that the impact of Government reductions will exceed 17%. This is on the back of previous reductions over the last 2 years of over 20%.

The actual reduction in Government support is significantly higher than the headline figure of 8.8% as this figure includes amounts raised in local taxation. Initial calculations indicate that the Government has reduced funding to the Council by more than 13%, though we are still working on the detail to confirm this figure.

The overall Local Government Grant Settlement this year shows that local government is continuing to face the brunt of reductions in spending by Government and that deprived councils particularly in the North are suffering the most under the Government’s reforms of local government finance.

The Council however remains strongly committed to ensuring services and jobs are protected wherever possible and that in these times of economic hardship for the people of Hyndburn, there should be no additional burden from increases in local taxation. Therefore despite the significant reduction in funding from the Government there will be no rise in the Council Tax in 2013/14 and we will still deliver quality, value for money services for our residents.

Hyndburn Council has a strong track record over many years of delivering good quality services efficiently and we will continue to find ways to do more for less.”

The Cabinet member for Finance, Cllr Joan Smith, has calculated the following figures about the reduction in spending power per dwelling in this borough over the period of 2013/14 and 2014/15:

2013/14

HBC spending is reduced by £38.56 per dwelling (8.8% reduction)
LCC reduction of £37.47 per dwelling (2.2% reduction)
Fire and Rescue reduced by £4.67 per dwelling (4.5% reduction)

2014/15 

HBC spending is reduced by £60.87 per dwelling (15.2% reduction)
LCC reduction of £60.55 per dwelling (3.7% reduction)
Fire and Rescue reduced by £3.22 per dwelling (3.2% reduction)

The total reduction works out at £205.64  less on public services per dwelling over the next two years. The Hyndburn Labour group are unwilling to incorporate any grants into that figure as there is no guarantee that any will now be available in future years.