'Wolverhampton has been hit harder than other local authorities' - city council leader hits back at criticism

Council leader Roger Lawrence today hit back at comments made by George Osborne during a city visit.

The chancellor said Labour needed to 'take responsibility for its actions' as the local authority cuts 2,000 jobs and services in £123m of cuts in a visit to brewing giants Marston's. Wolverhampton City Council has consistently blamed the Government for cutting its budget, leaving it forced to take action or face insolvency.

"In 2008 the Tories said that they would match Labour spending," said Councillor Lawrence. "Then there was the economic crisis, which was caused by a world financial crash and hit this country harder than others because of its huge dependency on financial services."

He said the cuts that had been imposed by the government were 'unfair'.

He added: "We clearly have to do some of our own deficit reduction, but local government has taken the brunt of the Government cuts while other areas have been hit significantly less.

"Wolverhampton has been hit harder than other local authorities because of its dependency on grants rather than council tax. Grants made up 75 per cent of our income because we do not have as many higher banded council tax properties as many other areas. In addition to that, the cuts are creating more children on welfare and other difficulties, which affect this city worse than others."

Paul Uppal, Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West, said it was time to stop playing the blame game. "The question we need to ask is how are we in the city of Wolverhampton going to make our way?" he said. "The reality is, the previous Labour government is to blame because they overspent, but we have to pick up the pieces for that."

He said employment schemes were among the solutions, such as the Wolverhampton Employment Network he launched with fellow MP Esther McVey.