When I first eyeballed the numbers that came out from the
Government just before Christmas setting out Babergh and Mid Suffolk's expected grant in 2014/15 I was quite encouraged. The figures seemed to be in positive territory, in a sea of minuses elsewhere,
which was encouraging to say the least.
After the New Year I contacted Babergh’s finance officers to
find out whether my optimism was well founded only to be told that the much quoted number
has been ‘dressed up’ by the Government, and that in fact significant cuts in
absolute terms will continue over the next few years.
I find this very puzzling, and will take time once everyone
is back to work and firing on all cylinders to try to understand why a positive
number in the government tables translates into a negative number in
reality. The complexities of local
government finance are such that I am expecting to have to put a wet tea towel
round my head and think quite hard for a while…but, if I manage to work it out,
I will try to communicate the results of
this exercise to you in due course.
Whatever the funding situation at Babergh, it seems that yet
again across the board rural councils have lost out in favour of more urban
areas. The Rural Services Network’s latest newsletter has
reported that a coalition of some 140 rural councils has called upon Secretary
of State, Eric Pickles, to think again about the funding balance. They are threatening a judicial review of the
settlement in the light of its unfairness.
The level of services received in the countryside is very poor relative
to those delivered to urban areas. The
latest news will do nothing to reverse this trend, and it is time to redress the balance.
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