Council pot 'cut by £800 per resident'
Cuts in council funding and welfare add up to more than £800 per person in parts of the West Midlands, it has been claimed.
A group of local authorities say that areas such as the Black Country have been left significantly worse off by austerity measures than richer areas such as the South East.
The figures from the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities (Sigoma) suggest that Sandwell will have lost £827 per person by 2017/18 while Wolverhampton will have lost £769.80, £661.80 per person in Walsall and £603.20 in Dudley.
Staffordshire varies from district to district with the county council losing £198 per person in funding plus £331 in Cannock Chase, £227.20 in Stafford, £221.20 in Lichfield and £213.30 in South Staffordshire.
Wyre Forest District Council will have lost £301.10 per person with a further £135.20 taken away from Worcestershire County Council.
The figures include not only the cuts to grants awarded directly to councils but also the impact of the freeze in council tax rates and whether councils believe they will be better or worse off because of new rules that allow them to keep some of the business rates, rather than having a national pot redistributed among them.
Sigoma claims the Government has not considered the 'cumulative' impact of its reforms on councils. Many authorities are axing hundreds of jobs over the next five years. In Wolverhampton alone 1,000 posts are being cut.
Sir Steve Houghton, chairman of Sigoma, said "The report shows the Government's complete disregard for the mounting pressure faced by certain councils and the pain it is causing their residents.
"The Government must make fair funding a key priority to allow councils to provide essential services without the growing distraction of a service failure."
Councillor Steve Eling, finance boss at Sandwell Council, added: "What this shows is that we no longer have a government for the UK, but for the south east of England."
