Huntingdonshire District Council’s revenue support grant settlement for the next three years was announced by the government last Thursday 6 December.

The government has calculated that the amount of money the council should be given to provide services in the area should increase by 10.4 per cent to £12,961,000. However because the government has previously withheld money from Huntingdonshire’s formula grant it has decided to do so again.

In order to ensure that other councils which have been over funded on an historical basis do not suffer a reduction, Huntingdonshire’s grant increase is to be ‘dampened’. In 2008 £804,000 will be deducted from the formula grant to fund other councils. This is more than twice the 2007/8 deduction of £364,000.

As a result Huntingdonshire’s grant will only increase by 3.6%. Taking into account the impact of inflation and the growing population this amounts to a reduction in real terms of 1.6%. In total the council will lose £1.8 million which the government calculates it is entitled to over the next three years.

The only districts with more money withheld are Lancaster and East Lindsey.

Councillor Ian Bates, Leader of the Council said;” We feel we have received a raw deal from the government's recent allocation of funding for Huntingdonshire,  it is a fact that local authorities in many other parts of the country enjoy much more substantial support per head of population than we do. Our biggest disappointment is the loss of 1.8 million that the government calculated we are entitled too.  We are an economic growth area with low unemployment but the government are not recognising this and therefore it is disappointing to receive such a low settlement.”

Terry Parker Director of Commerce and Technology at the district council said; “We are disappointed with the announcement. The grant increase should provide for the increasing costs that we are subject to and our growing population and we do not feel the figures are a fair refection of this.

“Each year the council produces a budget for the next year and a financial plan for the following four years. These latest grant announcements indicate that we will receive less funding in the future than we had forecast, which means we will have to find an extra £209k of spending adjustments over the next three years”.