Labour to Overhaul Council Funding and Make it Fairer
Mary Creagh MP has welcomed the Labour Government’s announcement that it will overhaul the way local councils are funded, fixing the unfair, outdated system left behind by the Conservatives and allocating money according to need. The local government funding system will be reformed to get councils back on stable footing, improve the lives for people across the country and deliver essential funding for better public services.
Under the Conservatives, deprived areas like Coventry East were less likely to get essential funding for local parks and libraries. Labour kickstarted the work this year with the Recovery Grant to allocate funding based on fairness and need, with £600m for the most deprived areas. The Government are now building that approach into the funding formula.
Labour will update the decade-old funding system to ensure that councils get the fair share of funding they need to deliver local services, designed to target deprivation.
Alongside this, the Labour Government has also announced action to make things fairer for taxpayers by ending outdated rules for tax collection and spreading payments over 12 monthly bills as standard.