Shropshire MPs demand fairer council funding deal from government

Tory Daniel Kawczynski said he is leading his “first ever rebellion” over council funding and has 14 other MPs on board.

Mr Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, led a delegation who met with Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid today for crunch talks on the formula for allocating grants to different local authorities.

Mr Kawczynski warned that if an agreement is not made he will be voting against his government's local government finance settlement on February 7.

Mr Kawczynski said: "It was a very positive meeting. These are tough negotiations but he has promised to ask the chancellor for more money.

"We have also asked to arrange a meeting with the chancellor ourselves."

Among those supporting Mr Kawczynski are North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson and Ludlow MP Philip Dunne.

Today Telford & Wrekin Council’s leader and finance chief called on the borough’s two MPs to show “real leadership” and vote against the proposed final government funding settlement.

Council leader Councillor Shaun Davies and Councillor Lee Carter, cabinet member for finance, have written a joint letter to Telford MP Lucy Allan and Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard.

The letter highlights that the council faces a 23 per cent (£4.3 million) cut in its revenue support grant next year – followed by a 30 per cent (a further £4.3 million) cut the year after.

“It would require a 21 per cent council tax increase alone to cover our funding shortfall and the additional investment we are having to make in adult social care and children’s safeguarding,” says the letter.

“The purpose of our letter is to appeal directly to you to support your residents and vote against the final settlement if it is unchanged from the provisional one when it is considered in Parliament.

“We really hope you will join with other MPs to lobby for a better funding approach for these key local government services.”

The letter adds: “This is an opportunity for you to exercise real leadership and to put the interests of our residents first.

“As Telford celebrates its 50th birthday, it is hard to conceive that you could support more cuts to vital local services.”

Telford & Wrekin Council’s proposed 3.2 per cent council tax increase would be equivalent to an extra 58p a week for the average borough Band B home.

The council said the majority of the increase is a two per cent increase to support adult social care that hovernment has already assumed in its funding settlement that councils like Telford & Wrekin will make.

The remaining 1.2 per cent increase, equivalent to a government grant councils had received to freeze council tax but now stopped, will support other services, while budgets for both vulnerable adults and children will both be increased but further savings of over £6 million will need to be made next year on top of the £110 million a year budget savings already made by the council.