Bridgwater and West Somerset Conservative MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has joined with more than 90 of his colleagues in calling on the Government to provide more generous funding support for councils in rural areas.
The all-party Rural Fair Share Campaign has written to the Prime Minister saying the Government is failing to take account of the additional built-in cost of delivering local authority services in the countryside.
And as a result the effects of cuts in Government support are falling far more heavily on council tax payers outside metropolitan areas.
Under next year’s provisional settlement formula metropolitan authorities will face a 19 per cent cut to their government grant over four years while for shire counties and rural unitaries the figure is 30 per cent.
Campaigning MPs have asked for a £130 million increase in the rural services delivery grant over the next four years but so far Ministers have offered just £65.5 million.
Mr Liddell-Grainger said Somerset would suffer worse than many counties because all its councils were classed as rural.
“This absolutely flies in the face of all logic,” he said.
“It is difficult for anyone to sustain the claims that the Government is taking more account of the interests of countryside-dwellers in its decision-making processes when these figures are held up to the light.
“It is simply impossible to apply the same funding yardstick to rural authorities as is used to measure the needs of urban ones. We all know urban areas have their problems: they are rarely out of the headlines.
“But rural areas have their own – and currently they appear to be being ignored.
“As the funding formula stands the greatest burden in terms of paying for local services will fall on people in rural areas, where incomes are generally lower and service provision is already less generous.
“Then there is the inescapable rural premium: the inevitable extra cost of delivering anything, whether it’s council services or groceries, to less populous areas.
“We need a thriving countryside. The Prime Minister has repeatedly stressed the importance of that – and the contribution that the rural economy makes to the nation’s economic well-being.
“But unjust settlements like this are simply going to lead to economic stagnation, more hardship, the closure of more rural businesses and an increased drift by young people into the towns and cities where life will be more affordable for them.”