Richard Drax, MP for South Dorset, today supported fairer funding for local authorities, saying that, while he supported the Government’s “direction of travel,” he was “concerned about much of the detail.”
As pressures on finance grew, councillors were not so keen on having tax raising powers, without the resources “to ensure that everything is dished out properly and fairly,” said Drax.
Speaking during a Commons debate on local government finance, Drax said that while he endorsed devolution and “local people should have more power to make local decisions,” the Government was responsible for ensuring that there was fair play, “whether it be in the differences between urban and rural or...the poorer and wealthier parts of our country.”
Drax listed five areas of particular concern to local councillors in Dorset; adult social care, the new homes bonus, business rate appeals, second home ownership and underfunding in general.
Speaking about the current difficulties with providing adult social care, Drax said, “In the view of those I have spoken to, business rates retention ‘does nothing’ to address urgent needs.”
“Across the country, the £240 million achieved in savings from the new homes bonus reform is going to social care as a one-off grant. This means that while social care gets one year’s resuscitation, councils of course lose out.”
In addition, the changes to the new homes bonus were only announced in December 2016, adversely affecting budgets set by councils in January 2017, said Drax.
“Taking funding from district councils in such a way forces them to review discretionary services, such as low-level support for older people and other vulnerable groups. “
In addition, Weymouth and Portland Borough Council would lose almost £1 million in New Homes Bonus by 2020, he added.
Citing criticism by the Society of District Council Treasurers, which described the cuts as ‘severe’ and ‘drastic,’ Drax said chronic underfunding of district councils was not addressed by safety nets, transition grants or sparsity payments and that rural services in particular “should be separately funded.”