BURY has been hit by a two per cent cut in the latest round of funding from the government aimed to help councils cope with the coronavirus crisis.

The local authority has received £5.25m in the second tranche of council grants, £111,233 less than the first, as the government has not taken deprivation into account when allocating this latest pot of money.

This comes after the council leader revealed the authority will need “quadruple” the amount of money pledged by government if the coronavirus crisis continues into the summer as the town hall faces a £29m shortfall.

Cllr David Jones wrote to the Prime Minister last week expressing his “deep concern” the local authority will not be able to continue to deliver vital public services unless the government provides even more funding.

He said: “The funding gap that we are facing as a result of coronavirus is severe. Without immediate support from the government, Bury Council faces the very real possibility of being unable to deliver vital services. This would have a devastating effect on our most vulnerable residents.

“After a decade of cuts we have already made as many hard choices as we can make. With ever more reduced resources, council staff are working round the clock to support our local residents through this crisis

“We are at the front line of this crisis and we need help. I urge the Prime Minister to commit to providing the immediate financial support we need to support our residents and to assure us that there will be a long-term funding settlement for local government. A one-off sum will not be good enough.”

Metro Mayor Andy Burnham revealed that funding has fallen for most boroughs in Greater Manchester in the latest recent allocation of government grants for councils at a remote press conference on Wednesday.

The hardest hit borough in Greater Manchester was Salford which is facing a 20 per cent cut, followed by Tameside where funding has fallen by 19 per cent.

Manchester City Council and Rochdale Council were both hit by a 18 per cent reduction, while Bolton and Oldham Councils have both lost 15 per cent.

The only borough in Greater Manchester which does not face a fall in funding was Trafford which received seven per cent more in the second tranche.

 

Mr Burnham said: “Nine of our ten councils received quite a significant reduction in their funding and only one recording an increase.

“This is very worrying given that this funding is meant to pay for homelessness support alongside a whole range of other things as well.

“If city regions are going to lead recovery, then they can’t do that if the councils within those city regions are facing cuts already and not receiving full cost recovery as they were led to expect.

“What we believe has happened is that then deprivation weighting has been removed from this formula that is allocating this funding.

“But I have to say even the leader of Trafford Council said today that he didn’t think that was right.

“Deprivation should be guiding the funding and that would be the Greater Manchester position and we’ll be relaying that very directly to the government.”