2/12/2004 - Government announces grant settlement for Cumbria County Council

Cumbria County Council has fared marginally better expected in this year's Revenue Support Grant settlement following a last minute cash injection of just over £600million nationally from central Government.

The new settlement gives the county council an extra £19.3 million - increasing the RSG to £334.6 million.

The grant accounts for around three quarters of the council's expenditure with the county council share of the council tax making up the rest.

Although welcome, the settlement is not as generous as has been generally assumed. 

County council deputy leader Mike Ash said: 

"We had calculated that if our grant settlement for next year been as the originally announced, our share of the council tax bills in the county would have had to rise by around 6.7per cent to maintain services at the current level.

"What this settlement means is that we can now think about setting a council tax increase in the county council’s share of the bills at around 5.8 per cent."

"For that reason this announcement from the treasury, with a little extra cash for Cumbria is very welcome indeed. However, unless this represents the start of a new and long term commitment to better funding for local government rather than a sop for voters ahead of a General Election in May, it will do little more than keep the wolf from the door for another year.

"Last year the Government ploughed extra money into local Government to keep council tax bills down, however until today they said that they were not going to repeat it. 

"Thanks to that extra money, and to efficiency savings found by the county council, the increase in the county's share of the council tax bills was one of the lowest in the country Last year."

The county council is expected to discuss the implications of the RSG settlement for its budget for 2005/6 at the cabinet meeting at The Courts in Carlisle on 21 December.