CHANCELLOR George Osborne has been urged to rethink the funding being allocated to Worcestershire County Council after slashing the cash handout by a further £11million.
Robin Walker MP made the plea for a ‘better offer’ after council chiefs at County Hall revealed they had just four weeks to plug the £11million hole in their 2016/17 budget.
The financial blow came after the Revenue Support Grant funding, cash handed to councils by the Government, came in much worse than expected and will be axed altogether by 2020 in a drive to make councils more self-sufficient.
Mr Walker called on the Chancellor to rethink the amount Worcestershire will receive this year, or to at least mitigate the funding drop by bringing forward plans to devolve 100 per cent of business rates to local authorities sooner than the planned start date of 2019.
County Council leader, Coun Simon Geraghty, was also due to hold talks in London yesterday (Tuesday) with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to make the case for the Government to re-think its funding formula.
“I am raising it with the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government as we need a better offer and a better settlement for Worcestershire,” Mr Walker said.
“I’m also making the case for the need to get on with business rates devolution.
“We need to make sure that the county makes the best case it can,” he added.
