Bromley facing £4.4m hit under formula changes … Social Services facing £2m funding cut

Bromley Conservative Councillors have expressed alarm at plans by the Government which could force up Council Tax by an extra 4%, as well as fear that councils will receive yet another poor deal from the Chancellor when he lays out the Governments spending plans tomorrow (Tuesday).

The changes to the complex formula that decides how much Councils receive from the Government is set to change next year – and a range of options are being suggested which could see funding cuts of up to £4.4m, including slashing social services funding by over £2m.

In addition to the changes in the formula, the Chancellor will today announce the results of the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007, which sets out the Government’s spending plans for the next three years, including how much will be made available to local councils.

Cllr. Neil Reddin

Bromley receives two thirds of its funding from central government, so a 1% cut in government funding could force Council Tax up by twice that amount. In recent years, despite the headline announcements by the Chancellor, the actual amount received by Bromley has failed to keep up with inflation. Last year, Bromley had an increase of just 1.7%.

Councillors discussed the changes at the Council’s Executive’s meeting on Monday night (8th).

Cllr. Neil Reddin, Bromley’s Conservative cabinet member for Resources, said, “Bromley, and indeed Greater London as a whole, already gets the raw end of the deal in government funding, in order to skew the system to benefit councils in the Labour heartlands of the North.

“This is a grand double fiddling of Bromley’s funding: tomorrow we will see what meagre crumbs the Chancellor will toss to local councils. Combined with the gerrymandering that is proposed in some of these formula changes, there will be tougher times ahead for Bromley.

Cllr. Stephen Carr, Conservative Leader of Bromley Council, said, “We remain committed to delivering quality services with a sustainably low Council Tax – that is what residents voted for in 2006. Sadly, with Gordon Brown bottling out of an early election, the voters of Bromley will have no chance to force the changes in Whitehall that will help us to deliver local priorities over the next few years.”