Neil O’Brien, MP for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston has welcomed the announcement of £500 million extra funding for local government announced today.
Taking into account this new funding, local government in England will see an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £4.5 billion next year, or 7.5% in cash terms, an above-inflation increase, with councils spending power rising from £60.2 billion in 2023-24 to up to £64.7 billion in 2024-25.
Neil said:
“I have been pressing for extra funding for local government, and I was one of 40 MPs who recently wrote to the Chancellor pressing for this to happen. So I am really pleased the government have listened.
The extra £500 million of funding from government will go towards social care. That is good news, as the growing number of older people needing care is one of the things that has put pressure on the budgets of places like Leicestershire, and county councils across the East Midlands.
This extra funding for care is on top of the £1 billion in additional funding announced at Autumn Statement 2022 and July 2023.
The other bit of good news is the that the Funding Guarantee has been increased to 4%, which means all councils will see a minimum increase in their Core Spending Power of 4%, before local decisions on council tax. That will particularly help district and borough councils like Harborough, and Oadby and Wigston.
I have been repeatedly pressing for this to happen, including in a meeting with the Chancellor this morning. This isn’t the end of the story, and we still need a fundamental overhaul of local government funding formulas, but this is a big step in the right direction.”
