Rural councils given cash boost after successful lobbying

Rural areas like Shropshire have been awarded extra cash by the Government, following successful lobbying to highlight the funding gap between urban and rural councils. 

The Rural Services Delivery Grant has been increased thanks in part to the hard work of the Rural Services Network’s SPARSE group, chaired by Shropshire Councillor Cecilia Motley. 

Shropshire Council has received a further £160,000, bringing the total Rural Services Delivery Grant for 2014/15 to £939,000. 

Councillor Cecilia Motley, Shropshire Council’s spokesperson for rural affairs, said:

“This is great news because it signifies that the Government is finally taking notice of the huge gap that exists between urban and rural council funding. 

“It is extremely unusual for the Government to increase a provisional settlement like this, and although the actual amount of money is relatively modest it is a very positive step forward. 

“There is no doubt that the increase is down to the intensive lobbying of Government by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Rural Affairs, through its Rural Fair Shares Campaign, which ran a petition, asked questions in Parliament and set up debates on the inequitable funding between urban and rural authorities. 

“The Parliamentary Group has worked closely with the Rural Services Network’s SPARSE group, which first drew the huge anomaly to its attention, did a constituency-by-constituency funding breakdown for rural MPs, and provided them with the research and analysis with which to lobby Government. 

“At last we are beginning to get our point across, and this is a big step in the right direction in reducing the imbalance between rural and urban authorities. 

“Rural councils get half the amount of Government funding per head of population compared to their urban counterparts. We’ve still a long way to go, but this is a good start.” 

Cecilia Motley has been vice chair of the Rural Services Network’s SPARSE group since 2007, and took over the chair in November 2013. 

The Rural Services Network is a Special Interest Group of the Local Government Association (LGA), representing the interests of rural councils. 

Cecilia Motley added:

“We have long argued that the increased costs of delivering services in sparsely-populated areas needs to be taken into account in the Government funding settlement. 

“Until 2013, this argument fell upon deaf ears, but the Government has now acknowledged that rural authorities are unfairly penalised by sparsity costs and have moved to make some recompense. 

“It’s pleasing that we have been successful in co-ordinating a voice for rural local authorities to join together to lobby Government for a better funding deal and to highlight key rural challenges.” 

For more information on the Local Government Settlement, visit the Department for Communities and Local Government’s website here: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/local-government-finance-rural-services.