Government must assess 'difficulty and costliness' of providing services in Shropshire says MP amid fears over council sustainability

Speaking in Parliament on Monday (June 9), North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan said the authority's finances have been "left on the brink" by the previous Conservative-run administration.

She told the House of Commons that around 85 per cent of the "struggling" council's budget is spent on social care.

In May, the Liberal Democrat party seized control of Shropshire Council, winning 42 of the 74 seats, and new council leader Heather Kidd set out the administration's "three key priorities" for its first 100 days in power.

These are to fix more potholes and improve the state of Shropshire's 3,200 miles of roads, improve customer services across the council, and to work "better and closer" with town and parish councils who the authority said could "help take on some services". 

Shropshire Council recently announced that it finished the latest financial year £34 million over budget. Cabinet member for finance Roger Evans said the figure underlined the "near impossible situation" that the council faces, and said "pressure will only continue" with an "ever-ageing" population requiring more care.

Furthermore, in January, the council said the removal of its rural services delivery grant, worth around £9 million, was a "key pressure" on the authority.

In light of this, when the Government carries out its fair funding review, Mrs Morgan has called for an assessment of the challenges facing councils in rural counties such as Shropshire. 

The Liberal Democrat MP said: "Shropshire Council’s finances have been left on the brink by 16 years of Conservative administration. It is the largest landlocked county in England, and it is struggling with about 85 per cent of its budget being spent on social care. 

"When the Minister does his fair funding review, will he look at the difficulty and costliness of delivering services over such a wide rural area and ensure that councils such as Shropshire, which has lost its rural services delivery grant, will be able to sustain themselves in the future?"

The Minister for Local Government and English Devolution, Jim McMahon, replied: "We made available an additional £5 billion as part of the settlement, and £3.7 billion of that was for social care. We understand the pressures and we are directing money to address them, but we know that this issue will take more than one year to fix. 

"We are on with the fair funding review - the third multi-year settlement in a decade - to begin to fix the foundations. We have definitely heard calls from rural communities and councils to take into account the additional cost for rurality and remoteness, and I assure that those issues are being looked at."