Budget guarantee ‘will cost Oldham £10m’

Angela Rayner

PLANS to give local authorities guaranteed budgets for every year of the current Parliament would see money spent on council services cut by £10million over two years says Failsworth MP Angela Rayner.

Local authorities will be given the option of a four-year funding settlement to give them “financial certainty” as the proportion of money they receive from central government shrinks and they become reliant on funds raised through council tax and business rates.

The Government has said overall funding for councils will fall by 2.8 per cent in 2016-17 but will then rise again, so that by 2019-20 it is virtually unchanged.

Communities secretary Greg Clark said the deal “maintains the financial resources available to councils in 2020 at around the same level as they are today while giving incentives for local government to make significant savings”.

Local MPs Mrs Rayner and Jim McMahon were less enthusiastic about the proposals.

Mrs Rayner said: “The local government settlement for Tameside and Oldham council will mean a massive shortfall in what is required for services. The money spent on council services in Tameside will be cut by another £10million over next two years; Oldham faces the same fate.”

Mr McMahon, the new MP for Oldham West and Royton, said: “What does a four-year settlement mean for councils on the cliff edge? The pain is more certain.”