Levelling up: Bucks Council's Central Government funding more than halves in just five years

New data shows that funding provided by the Central Government to Bucks Council has more than halved in just five years.

Figures reveal that since the 2015-16 financial year up to 2021, government-allocated spending has dropped from £116,262,344.5 per year to £54,435,300.

Bucks Council only became a unitary authority in 2020, but National World has combined the funding given to the four district councils prior to the merger.

Bucks' local authority ranks 13th out of all council's in the UK when it comes to the biggest decrease in central government funding.

Estimates show it has seen its budget cut by 53.2%, the biggest cut drops were seen in West Sussex Council, followed by Hampshire.

Despite funding falling substantially in a five-year period in Bucks, the council ranked 143rd when it came to spending cuts per person.

National World's data shows that funding has fallen by £113 per person in a five-year period in the county.

National World has adjusted figures for inflation and sourced its data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

The Levelling Up White Paper was released by levelling up secretary Michael Gove last Thursday (February 3).

It is a government-designed strategy to close the gap between the wealthy and the poor throughout the country.

Labour and other groups criticised the plans for a lack of new money.

It also made no mention of what the think tank Institute for Public Policy Research North (IPPR North) describes as the “elephant in the room” on levelling up – funding for councils.

Local authorities in England have endured years of savage budget cuts, which in many areas has led to big hikes to council tax rates.

As seen in Bucks, where another significant council tax rise, was announced last month.

Jonathan Webb, senior research fellow at the think tank IPPR North, says the decade of central government austerity was “an appalling failure” that “actively harmed” people.

A commitment to reverse austerity and to provide the investment needed to realise ‘levelling up’ was missing in this week’s long awaited white paper,” he said.

“Although many of the ambitions set out by government this week are a step in the right direction, none of them will be achieved without an acknowledgement that austerity has failed, and action to reverse it.

“The government should put its money where its mouth is, immediately.”

Councils have three main sources of funding for services – council tax, business rates, and central government grants.

Each year the government reveals the funding that has been allocated to each council – known as the ‘funding settlement assessment’.

This is made up of business rates (paid locally but sent to central government first to be dished back out) and the ‘Revenue Support Grant’, a pot of core funding that councils are free to spend on whatever day-to-say services they want.

Some other central government money comes in the form of specific grants, some of which are ring-fenced and pass straight through councils to their destination, such as the Dedicated Schools Grant. The government does not include these grants when it measures the level of general funding councils get.

Every year councils look at their budgets to see how much money they need to deliver services. They then subtract what they know they are getting from the Government, or from their own income streams such as from investments.

Whatever is left is what they need to raise from council tax – so cuts to government funding can mean steep tax rises for residents to plug the gaps.

The Department of Levelling up, Housing and Communities did not respond to National World's request to comment.