Let them pick fruit

Leader of Buckinghamshire County Council David Shakespeare

In many policy areas the coalition has stressed what is being done to combat the North/South divide. The list of winners and losers from the Local Authority settlement was always going to be seen as a test. The BBC resilience survey for example showed clearly how Southern councils were less dependent on public money.

But comments like those of the Conservative leader of Buckinghamshire Council David Shakespeare haven't helped.

At an LGA debate last week he echoed Norman Tebbit's "on your bike" comments on the unemployed:

"The North may replace the Romanians in the cherry orchards," he said.

"That may be a good thing."

He says now that it was a joke, replying to another from a Northern member threatening to send people down South.

But this North/South split in council funding could be, forgive me, a banana skin for the coalition. Northern Labour MPs have seized on the remarks. Tom Blenkinsop, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, said

"To see northerners in this second class, undermining and disrespectful way is typical for a very southern-orientated political party like the Conservatives. The Tory Party certainly can't claim to be the party of one nation."

Buckinghamshire is having to make £9.2 million of cuts. But Eric Pickles' less than clear rankings of "spending power" certainly seems to suggest that wealthier Southern authorities have done better than Northern ones.

There are exceptions. Take Weymouth and Portland Borough Council with a reduction in direct government funding from £5.145 million to £4.281 million which equates to £864,000 (16.8%) less in the Council's grant for 2011/12 with a further reduction of £587,000 (13.7%) in 2012/13. The total loss in funding is £1.451 million over the next two years.

Portsmouth, a Lib Dem authority, are most unhappy.

Council Leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson said:

"I am extremely disappointed by the settlement, and disappointed that what the minister announced in the House of Commons does not appear to be reflected in fact."

"The implications for the council overall and its budget deficit are still being assessed. The position is expected to become much clearer as further information becomes available over the coming days and weeks."

They say Portsmouth has been disadvantaged by the "floor" mechanism which ensures no local authority can suffer a reduction beyond a prescribed level. Those above the "floor" suffer a reduction which is re-distributed to those below the "floor".

Portsmouth's grant allocation has been reduced by £4.2m as a result of this and this money has been re-distributed to other local authorities that would otherwise have received higher cuts.

Here's the way our local authorities end up at the bottom of the list of "reductions in spending power" on the DCLG figures:

• Oxfordshire -1.87%
• Buckinghamshire Fire -1.87%
• Windsor and Maidenhead -1.06%
• Poole -0.97%
• Hampshire -0.95%
• West Sussex -0.65%
• Wokingham -0.63%
• Buckinghamshire -0.60%
• Berkshire Fire Authority -0.52%
• Wiltshire Fire -0.33%
• Surrey -0.31%
• Dorset Fire +1.15%
• Hampshire Fire +1.53%

It's true that many southern councils receive less in public funding, up to ten times less. DCLG give the example of Wokingham in Berkshire at £125 per head - compared to a thousand pounds plus of taxpayers money spent on each person in many Midland and Northern councils.

And it's not just the way the cake is cut. Southern councils may be wealthier areas but they have been under real financial pressure in recent years. They've already started to make the economies needed to cut budgets further.

Mergers of services like East Dorset and Christchurch or Arun and Worthing are becoming commonplace down here. But the big city authorities of the North are only just starting to look at the possibilities.

There is a transitioning element to the funding, and there's a lot more to be revealed in the details of the funding. But you can be sure that as services are cut this is only the start of the regional comparisons.

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