Extra funding for Council “won’t even touch the sides of this black hole”

Cornwall Councillors have reacted with dismay to an announcement that Government funding will be increased by £500 million ... for the whole of England!

“When I first heard about the £500m extra funding for Cornwall Council, I was delighted,” said Liberal Democrat Group Leader Colin Martin. “That would cover the costs of inflation and the increased demands for emergency accommodation for homeless families, Adult Social Care, and children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. It would also allow us to start paying care workers £2 per hour above the National Living Wage, which would provide a huge boost to recruitment and finally take some pressure off our over-stretched NHS. We could even begin to invest in energy efficiency and heat pumps for Council houses.”

But £500 million is actually the total grant for England, not just for Cornwall Council.

“When someone told me that this was the national figure, I thought it was some kind of twisted joke!” said Cllr Martin. “Cornwall Council will probably receive around 1% of the total, just £5 million. In just one year, inflation has increased Cornwall Council’s costs by £51 million, and demand for key services has increased by a further £59 million. £5 million won’t even touch the sides of this black hole”.

The timing of the announcement was particularly unwelcome as Councillors had just been informed that a separate stream of Government funding, known as the “Services Grant” has been cut by over £400 million nationally, taking £3.8 million per year out of Cornwall Council’s coffers.

“It’s the oldest trick in the political book” says Cllr Martin. “First you quietly take away money with one hand, then you loudly give it back with the other. It’s exactly the same story with personal taxation; the Government expects us to be grateful for cutting the average worker’s National Insurance bill by £450 per year, but after 25 Tory tax hikes and sky-high interest rates, most families are out of pocket by more than that amount every single month!”

“Despite the Conservatives cutting Cornwall’s central government grant by 84% between 2015 and 2021, careful financial management by the Liberal Democrats left a balanced budget. But since the Conservatives took control of the Council, the finances have spiralled into chaos. Despite increasing Council tax by 5% every year (something which they criticised in opposition), the Conservatives have sacked hundreds of key workers and cut back on essential services such as road maintenance. And even after all this, they now face a £57 million budget shortfall this year alone.”

“Fourteen years of Conservative austerity have left us with bigger debts, higher taxes and shattered public services. It really is the worst of all worlds! Meanwhile Labour are so afraid of opinion polls that they won’t commit to any of the investment we need to turn things around. Only the Liberal Democrats are brave enough to say that spending money on decent public services actually saves money in the long-run because it empowers people to live healthier, more productive lives, boosting the economy and reducing the strain on public services.”