Provisional Local Government Settlement

Emma Foody, Member of Parliament for Cramlington and Killingworth, has welcomed the Labour Government’s provisional Local Government Settlement, which will provide £69billion to councils across England.

Under the provisional Local Government Settlement, Core Spending Power will increase for each of the local authorities within Cramlington and Killingworth by over 5%. Newcastle will see an increase of 8.3%, North Tyneside of 6.2% and Northumberland of 5.1%.

Speaking in Parliament in response to the provisional Local Government Settlement, Emma Foody MP stated “I welcome the Minister’s Statement and that this government is starting to fix the damage done by more than a decade of disastrous settlements for local government.

“In my constituency that means more than 5% increases for each local authority in Core Spending Power.

“But does the Minister agree that as, if not more important, is the consultation on long term proposals to fundamentally improve the way the local government is funded through a fairer system.

In response to the question, the Minister for Local Government and English Devolution responded stating that “We have approached this year very much as a recovery operation, we saw that councils were in a ditch and needed to be pulled out and taken home. That’s exactly what this one year settlement will do.

But what they need and deserve is a multiyear settlement that gives long term security and stability and for that long term settlement not to be the continuation of a broken system but a system that has been rewired and put right”.

Following the exchange, Ms Foody stated:

“The previous Conservative government oversaw a decade of disastrous settlements for councils in the North East and residents have paid the price in the services that they receive.

“I welcome this first step to putting this right, fixing the foundations of local council funding. I welcome the Minister’s commitment to multiyear settlements that will ensure that our councils have the long term security and stability they deserve, alongside further powers devolved to our region and the North East Mayor”.