Shropshire Star

Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski lobbying minister for fairer council funding

Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski will demand a fairer deal for Shropshire when he meets a cabinet minister today to discuss local government funding.

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Daniel Kawczynski

Mr Kawczynski will meet Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid for crunch talks on the formula for allocating grants to different local authorities.

But Conservative Mr Kawczynski said he was minded to vote against the Government on the forthcoming council finance deal unless something was done to make the system fairer.

It is the second time Mr Kawczynski has threatened to vote against his party over the issue of local government funding.

In 2016 he was persuaded to vote in favour of the settlement after the Government agreed to make an extra £8.5 million available.

But Mr Kawczynski said the latest settlement, which was presented to the Commons in draft form last month, continued to give counties like Shropshire a raw deal.

"I'm very concerned that it still discriminates against rural areas like Shropshire in favour of the more urban areas," he said.

"I have called for an urgent meeting with Sajid Javid to see if we can secure a fairer funding deal.

"At the moment I'm still minded to vote against the bill, despite the many reassurances I have received."

Mr Kawczynski met Mr Javid last month, to put the case for a fairer deal for Shropshire.

The meeting was also attended by North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson, Shropshire Council leader Councillor Peter Nutting, his deputy Councillor Steve Charmley and council chief executive Clive Wright.