COUNCIL chiefs in Cumbria have been rendered 'surprised and disappointed' after the county's bid to retain £9 million of business rates was snubbed by government ministers.

The money would have helped the financially stricken Cumbria County Council from making additional cuts to services as it attempts to strip £27 million from its budget next year.


Communities Secretary Sajid Javid Photo: PA Wire Instead, Department for Communities and Local Government minister Sajid Javid announced he would allow authorities to raise money through an increased council tax levy of three per cent from next year without any consultation with residents.

"It's surprising and disappointing," said CCC deputy leader and finance boss Councillor Ian Stewart.

"I was confident we had put in a very good bid.

"But the government are expecting us to raise more money locally by increasing council tax more and more and more and more each year.

"There has got to be a threshold by which people who are struggling to pay council tax now will not be able to cope, and this is not going to help."

Currently, business rates are paid to the government, with a portion - around 50 per cent - handed back to local councils.

The new business rates retention pilot scheme would have allowed councils in Cumbria to keep 100 per cent of the rates paid by businesses in the area.

It would have allowed CCC to keep between £5m and £6m next year - with an additional £3m retained by the county's six district councils.

But as council leaders and officials waited eagerly today for confirmation of the scheme by DCLG, Cumbria was not among the ten authorities announced as successful bidders - double the number expected to be included in the pilot project.

With the exception of Leeds and Derbyshire, these are located in the south of the country and are predominately Conservative run.

Cumbria's council bosses have now promised to pursue feedback from ministers over why their bid was not included.

Cllr Stewart added: "It's always disappointing when the government doesn't put any more money into Cumbria.
Cllr Ian Stewart STUART WALKER

"This decision will mean a further review of services next year so we can balance our budget, which is something we are required to do by law."

Cumbria County Council has already slashed its annual spending by £214m since 2011.

But a further £61m still has to be trimmed by 2021, including £27m during the 2018/19 financial year.

Council tax bills are set to shoot up by four per cent from April, with further hikes and service cuts in future years now looking ever more likely.

Cumbria was left out - but which councils were successful?

Berkshire

Surrey

Suffolk

Kent and Medway

Gloucestershire

Devon

Lincolnshire

Solent

Derbyshire,

Leeds

Officials to work 'into the night' on annual settlement for Cumbria


Cumbria House, the headquarters of Cumbria County Council: STUART WALKER NUMBER crunchers within Cumbria's top tier authority are to work 'into the night' to decipher how much the council will receive from government from April.

Ministers within the Department for Communities and Local Government announced the annual settlement to local councils in the House of Commons today.

Finance experts within Cumbria County Council are now applying the figures to the council's budget to work out if the authority is better or worse off than expected during the 2018/19 financial year.

The authority was required by law to publish its budget for the year ahead last month based on an estimated amount of funding from central government.

Councillor Ian Stewart, deputy leader of the council and its finance boss, said: "We have not been able to assess the full implications of the settlement yet.

"Officers will be working long into the night to pour over it."

The settlement announcement made no mention of extra cash for children's services and adult social services - the two prime financial pressures upon CCC.