Poorer areas 'suffer deeper cuts'

Shadow local government minister Caroline Flint says poorer councils will be hit harder than wealthy ones
12 April 2012

Official figures show cuts to local council funding are on average four times deeper in the poorest areas of the country than the best off, Labour said.

Shadow local government minister Caroline Flint published analysis by the House of Commons library which she said showed Tory areas were "getting off much lighter".

And she said there was also a large gulf between the fates of authorities in the constituencies of Conservative cabinet ministers and their Liberal Democrat coalition colleagues.

Town hall chiefs are warning of cuts to jobs and services after the Government gave details this week of a 17% reduction in central grants for 2011/12 - the first of a four-year squeeze.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles insisted the package was "progressive and fair" because steps had been taken to protect the poorest areas which rely most heavily on public sector services.

But Ms Flint said the figures showed they were not being imposed in a fair way.

The most deprived 10% of single-tier authorities would see their spending power reduced by 8.4% next year compared with 2.2% for the best off.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's council in Sheffield would suffer a cut of 8.4% while Witney in Oxfordshire, where Prime Minister David Cameron is MP, would suffer only a 1.9% reduction.

"These figures confirm what many feared - we're not all in this together," Ms Flint said.

"The Tory-Lib Dem Government has chosen to hit the poorest councils hardest, with average cuts for the most deprived communities four times bigger than those in the better off areas. In some cases, the cuts are nearly nine times as big."

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