Government funding reductions could see Stoke-on-Trent City Council face £50m cuts
GOVERNMENT ministers have masked the scale of cuts facing the region's councils by 'smuggling' huge reductions into the second half of a two-year funding agreement, it is claimed.
Eric Pickles pledged Stoke-on-Trent City Council would lose just 0.2 per cent of its 'spending power' next year in the latest round of Government cuts to council funding – handing the council one of the best settlements in the country.
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Council leader Mohammed Pervez has accused the government of fiddling with the figures.
But the authority's finance managers say emerging details about the second year of funding in the same settlement mean spending power will actually be cut by more than five per cent over two years.
It means cuts of £50 million – including £21.1 million in 2013/14 – will go ahead.
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Peter Bates, the city council's director of finance, accused the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) of releasing inaccurate funding information in an error-strewn official email.
He said: "It's hugely disappointing from my perspective. They are still doing their sums. We still don't have all of the information we need but based on the headline figures they have provided we are much worse off than suggested.
"I received a personally-addressed email today from the civil service at the DCLG – and the figures do not even add up. That's the sort of professionalism we're dealing with at the moment.
"Funding for 2013/14 will be better than predicted, although by how much is still not clear. But what they have given us in 13/14 they have taken away, and more, in 2014/15."
Mr Pickles has faced criticism for releasing funding data based on 'spending power' calculations, which offset funding cuts by taking into account assumed income from the NHS, house-building bonuses and business rates.
Newcastle Borough Council expects the true scale of cuts to be more than double the DCLG's announcement of a 2.1 per cent reduction in spending power – leading to additional cuts of £1 million from 2014.
City council leader Mohammed Pervez, below, said: "They have fiddled with the figures to make the percentages look lower. If you look at the detail, we have again been hit very hard.
"To some extent the percentages are irrelevant. We want to know what the absolute cut to our funding is and they still haven't made that clear. In the first year we probably are a little bit better off than expected – but they are taking all of the money back and more in the second year.
"We are expecting to have to make savings of £50 million over two years. It is our worst nightmare, brought to life.
"They've made it sound like they've done the city a favour but in fact these are deep cuts which are seriously undermining our efforts to provide jobs and growth in the city."
Comments
by stevenweiss
Monday, December 24 2012, 12:24AM
“The council must realize it isn't Stoke vs. The Rest of the Country, and stop waging its own mini war in this financial crisis.”
by Nicky_Davis_
Sunday, December 23 2012, 11:19PM
“My comments can be summed up in the first two links, the last is just the most recent full council:
http://tinyurl.com/c8gj4ak
http://tinyurl.com/bsvgvmz
http://tinyurl.com/bwbpml9”
by stokepotter
Sunday, December 23 2012, 8:31PM
“Finger trouble. Should read
"Sadly, I am afraid that those of you who believe that Mr Pevez and his Labour lot will stay in power are continue this City on the downward path are probably right. Too much apathy is the problem giving a low turnout of the electorate at the local election.
Much of those in Stoke-on-Trent who do vote, vote for the party not the person. We all know that if you put on a red rosette and say you are Labour then (with a few exceptions - those wards which see the light and do not vote Labour) you will be voted in by the relatively small number of people who can be bothered to vote. Local elections should be about voting for the person and not the party. However, S.oT is still one of those backward places which thinks that a "working man or woman" must vote Labour and the result is that any muppet with a red rosette pinned on their clothing can get in.
How do you define the "working man / woman". Logically it is anyone who works is in this category - no matter how much they earn. It is not just someone who is on the minimum wage or thereabouts must be Labour or how would the rich politicians who have Labour stamped on them get in.What a person earns does not necessarily determine which political party they are affiliated to. Thera are a lot of Labour millionaires too.
Vote for the person who has some vision, knows how to live within a budget, does his or her best for his / her ward and the City - not the political party. If the electorate did this, then we would see the end of this lot who are doing nothing but cutting services and getting the city deeper into debt with white elephant projects that are financially spinning out of control. Mr Pevez then tries to smokescreen it all by blaming Central Government for the disasters that have been and are being caused by his blatant ignoring of the needs of this City."”
by stokepotter
Sunday, December 23 2012, 8:28PM
“Sasly, I am afraid that those of you who believe that Mr Pevez and his Labour lot will stay in power are probably right. Too much apathy is the problem.
Much of those in Stoke-on-Trent who do vote, vote for the party not the person. We all know that if you put on a red rosette and say you are Labour then (with a few exceptions - those wards which see the light and do not vote Labour) you will be voted in by the relatively small number of people who can be bothered to vote. Local elections should be about voting for the person and not the party. However, S.oT is still one of those backward places which thinks that a "working man or woman" must vote Labour and the result is that any muppet with a red rosette pinned on their clothing can get in.
How do you define the "working man / woman". Logically it is anyone who works is in this category - no matter how much they earn. It is not just someone who is on the minimum wage or thereabouts must be Labour or how would the rich politicians who have Labour stamped on them get in.What a person earns does not necessarily determine which political party they are affiliated to. Thera are a lot of Labour millionaires too.
Vote for the person who has some vision, knows how to live within a budget, does his or her best for his / her ward and the City - not the political party. If the electorate did this, then we would see the end of this lot who are doing nothing but cutting services and getting the city deeper into debt with white elephant projects that are financially spinning out of control. Mr Pevez then tries to smokescreen it all by blaming Central Government for the disasters that have been and are being caused by his blatant ignoring of the needs of this City.”
by buster012
Sunday, December 23 2012, 6:42PM
“We all know what will happen when the local elections come around.
The sheople will have forgotten the mess that Pervez and Co have put us in. The liebour machine will go in overdrive and promise to put the mess right and the sheople will believe. The liebour parasites will give a big thanks to the minority who vote them in and then carry on sercwing the people of Stoke-on-Trent for another four years because the majority couldn't be bothered to get of their aesrs and help make a change.
It sort of makes you wonder if the majority of the people in Stoke-on-Trent actually like to suffer at the hands of fools!”
by freebee123
Sunday, December 23 2012, 11:32AM
“Surely if we can afford a new civic centre we can afford a few goverment cuts, Westminister can see that. LIKE HECK.”
by bemused_stare
Saturday, December 22 2012, 3:03PM
“90% are blissfully unaware - Society, Sky, alcohol, prescription drugs...
10% moan about the state of affairs.
Of those 9.9% see moaning as an end in itself
Leaving 0.1% who're prepared to act.
Those in power rub their hands.
Be good to test this hypothesis
The ones I find the most frustrating are the 9.9% - keyboard warriors, wasters...”
by Notanumber
Saturday, December 22 2012, 2:43PM
“bemused_stare - I'm afraid holding your breath on that one may result in yours and my asphyxiation. What the general voting population care about when voting in Labour at the election, is the twisted idea of 'what's yours is mine and what's mine is my own'. No thought, as it is with their MP's of fiscal sense where, what you borrow you have to eventually have to repay. Theirs is a sense of indignation that they should be responsible for any budgeting of their money. The hope would be to get voted out and leave a massive deficit and then blame the next lot for the mess it leaves behind. However, Stoke is a special case as there is no need to be concerned regarding re-election as it is always a foregone conclusion whatever the elected Reds do.”
by focusboy
Saturday, December 22 2012, 12:09PM
“"Council leader Mohammed Pervez has accused the government of fiddling with the figures"
The mind boggles! Talk about hypocrisy!”
by mole10
Saturday, December 22 2012, 12:06PM
“Our Council recently accused we critics of talking Stoke-on-Trent down (remember your quote JVL?).
The truth is, that it is ur Council who talk us down, make us a laughing stock of the country and now they resort to lies on funding to prop up their discredited excuses over cuts and shuts.
Eric Pickles is carrying the can for a useless Labour council that tells lies and couldn't care less about old people.”