Cash-strapped council 'to appeal' government settlement and ask for 'appropriate' funding
Shropshire Council has asked the Government to reconsider how much funding it will receive.
Last month a provisional multi-year financial settlement was published so each local authority could see how much funding it would receive from central government.
However, despite the settlement showing that its core spending power will increase by £48.1 million from £354.8m in 2024/25 to £402.9m in 2028/29, Shropshire Council says it doesn’t tell the full story.
The increases, say the council, is based wholly on council tax rises, which the Government assumes will be 4.99 per cent a year. That would see Shropshire Council putting up its council tax by £61.5m.
However, during the same period, the council says the other portion of core spending power actually reduces by £13.4m.
Therefore, Shropshire Council has sent a response to the Government asking if it can review the settlement it will receive.
“When the fair funding review was announced, the Government did make a number of commitments – that they would reflect the impact of rurality on the cost of service delivery,” Cheryl Sedgley, strategic finance manager at Shropshire Council, told journalists at a briefing event this week.
“When we had the initial indications of what the formula would look like, it had been suggested there would be a remoteness adjustment that would be applied across all service areas.
“What we’ve actually seen is that isn’t the case. They’ve only applied the remoteness adjustment to just adult social care.
“As a result, I think that’s some of the reason why we’ve lost money compared to where we thought we would be.
“We are basically asking government to re-look at it again so that the costs a rural council are facing in terms of the pressures that we’re experiencing are reflected appropriately.”
Tanya Miles, the interim chief executive at Shropshire Council, said that most urban councils are set to receive 41 per cent more per head in government funding than rural councils.
“The expectation is that we have to have our income through council tax,” she said.
This, said council leader Heather Kidd, makes setting the budget difficult.
“We met up with all the MPs last week,” she said.
“[North Shropshire MP] Helen Morgan has already written letters to ministers, [Shrewsbury MP] Julia Buckley I think will be doing something similar. I am not sure the Government realises how little we raise through council tax.”
Shropshire Council is hopeful of receiving a response from the Government early next month.
