Tories Confirm Severe Cuts for Leicestershire
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
8th February 2016
Tories Confirm Severe Cuts for Leicestershire
The Government has published its final funding settlement that will be voted on in the House of Commons tomorrow. Broadly similar to the provisional settlement announced in September, there will be severe cuts to Council funding, with Leicestershire County Council expected to lose all Revenue Support Grant by 2020.
Local Government Minister, Greg Clark, tried to paint a bright picture by announcing that he no longer planned deduct £2m of business rates and that there would a £3m one off "transition fund", but critics point out these are insignificant when considering the £56m of cuts that will still need to be made.
Simon Galton said: "The fact that a couple of small goodies were announced must not distract from the larger picture of severe cuts to Council services.
Even with the transitional funding and the cancelling of the business rate clawback, Leicestershire County Council still needs to make a further £56m of cuts over the next four years. It's still a far worse deal than what was planned under the coalition.
Prevention services that save the Council money in the long run will be lost, libraries and museums will depend on unpaid volunteers to stay open at all, villages where bus routes cannot run at a profit will lose their public transport, and even then the Council will still find another £17m of cuts to make.
It's important that MPs remember that the fundamental problems with Leicestershire's budget remain and that unless they can get the Government to properly address these problems then Leicestershire residents will suffer."