The leader of Cumbria County Council has vowed to "continue to press the case" for a "fair" model for public health funding from Government.

Stewart Young, the Labour Party leader of Cumbria County Council, has said that it "cannot be right" that in the newly-published Public Health Grant allocations for the 2021 to 2022 financial year from central Government, Cumbria is set to receive just over £19m, which equates to £38.03 per person across the county.

Mr Young's criticism stems from the fact that per person funding allocations for other parts of the country, such as Nottingham, Blackpool, Middlesbrough and several London boroughs, is significantly higher.

Addressing fellow county council cabinet members at its meeting last Thursday, Mr Young drew attention to the funding allocation for the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, just over £21.5m, which equates to £138 per person.

"It cannot be right that Cumbria will receive £38 per head of population, but the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea will receive £138 per head," Mr Young said.

"To put that another way, if Cumbria Public Health Service was to be funded at the same level as Kensington and Chelsea, we would receive a further £50m, on top of the £19m which we're actually going to get."

Local authorities such as Cumbria County Council across the country are responsible for public health in their area, tasked with both improving the health of the local population and reducing inequalities in the health of residents.

To support them in this, central Government each year provides a ring-fenced grant exclusively for the purposes of funding public health functions.

For this current financial year, Cumbria received over £18.7m in its Public Health Grant allocation, which works out at £37.80 per person.

The overall grant provided to local authorities is set to rise from £3.279bn for the year 2020 to 2021, to £3.324bn for the year 2021 to 2022, with each local authority set to receive, as a minimum, a 0.67 per cent increase in cash terms funding.

As such, the funding allocation Cumbria for the coming year represents an increase on last year, however the new allocation falls short of the level provided in the 2015 to 2016 financial year, when the county received over £19.8m in Public Health Grant funding, equating to £40 per person.

With funding for the coming financial year falling short of that provided six years ago across the country, David Finch, Senior Fellow at independent charity the Health Foundation, said last week that public health funding should be "at a minimum" restored to 2015-16 levels.

"This year’s public health grant allocations provide only a small £45 million increase on last year," Mr Finch said.

"This is a 24 per cent cut – equivalent to £1bn – on a real term per capita basis compared to 2015/16.

"These allocations have come late, just before the start of the next financial year, making planning ahead even more difficult."

Mr Finch added that in the "longer term", public health funding is of "crucial importance" for improving health and addressing "inequalities that have been further exacerbated by the pandemic".

"Looking ahead, it is important that, at a minimum, government restores the grant to 2015-16 levels by investing an extra £1bn a year and then ensures that the grant keeps pace with growth in NHS England’s spend."

Mr Finch's criticism echoed Mr Young's, who also accused the Government of providing a "real-terms cut" in funding for Cumbria County Council's public health functions.

"We will continue to press the case for a fair distribution model that sees Cumbria being levelled up with more prosperous areas in the south," he said.

The Government does not allocate its Public Health Grant on a per capita basis, and it is yet to make a final decision about future reform to grant allocations, which if made would be taken in the context of its 2021 Spending Review.

In response to Mr Young's comments on the allocation of the Public Health Grant, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The Government is supporting Directors of Public Health, and their teams, to protect and improve the public’s health and wellbeing during the current pandemic and beyond.

“As part of the recent Spending Review we committed to keeping the public health grant, meaning local authorities can continue to invest in prevention and essential frontline health services, serving the communities they know best.

“In addition to the baseline funding for public health, we have also made over £11bn available to local councils to support them with the costs and impacts of Covid-19.”