Shropshire Star

Settlement ‘offers no respite for Telford & Wrekin Council'

Telford & Wrekin Council says the local government finance settlement which has just been published provides no respite to the financial crisis affecting local government.

Published

Cabinet member for finance Lee Carter said the settlement had made absolutely no change to the council's position.

"It merely pushes the burden of cuts in local government grant on to the council tax payer," he said.

“It confirms what we feared - after making £117 million of savings from our budget since 2010, we will still need to find another £28 million over the next three years and will continue our budget plans that we set out following consultation earlier this year.

“Sadly the state of local government finances after years of cuts in Government grants is that we are in the crazy situation where because of the growing pressures on areas such as care for vulnerable adults and looked after children, despite us increasing council tax, we still have to make cuts in our budget and services.

“Rightly people will ask why they should pay more for less but Government is cutting grants to councils and expecting council tax payers to shoulder a greater share of the cost of council services.

“We are doing as much as we can by introducing plans to help ease the cost pressures on adults and looked after children’s services in particular. But the cost of providing these services and the numbers needing support are growing as are the charges we have to pay to private sector care providers as they face increasing cost pressures.

“I will also be asking the borough’s MPs to join us in helping to fight these latest cuts in Government grant here, as other MPs in Shropshire have successfully done for Shropshire Council, and campaign together for fair funding for our borough.”

Shropshire Council says it is still looking at the details of its financial settlement.

It says the Rural Services Delivery Grant is £1.3m higher than it had anticipated and the social care grants are broadly in line with what it has built into its budges.