Lewes District Council pressures government for help to avoid significant council tax rises

4.01.03pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 21st Jan 2008

In a last-ditch attempt to stave off significant council tax increases, the ruling Liberal Democrat group on Lewes District Council is playing a leading role in a national campaign aimed at forcing the government to make more money available to local councils.

The council, which will publish its council tax proposals for 2008-09 by the end of this month, is still looking for help to plug a massive gap left by cuts in government funding. With three quarters of local government funding coming from national coffers, any cuts in government grants can leave a massive hole, which have to be made up either by council tax increases or cutbacks in services.

"We are already under the cosh because of the government's inadequate way of financing senior citizens' bus passes," said Lewes District Council leader Ann De Vecchi, "and we don't have information on the hundreds of thousands of pounds missing that would make a tremendous difference to our budgeting. It means we are budgeting in the dark, and as we have to plan for the next three years, because the government grant is fixed for that period, it will mean the double whammy of more council tax rises and more cutbacks in services for our long-suffering taxpayers."

Lewes councillors are backing a campaign coordinated by the Local Government Association that is protesting about local councils footing the bill for central government's policy.

Ann De Vecchi added: "Things are made worse by the fact that the government appears to be diverting more funds to Labour areas by the rather devious means of a complex formula to decide council grants. It's typical of this government to dictate what we must do, and it's depressing for us, because we go into local government to meet the needs of local residents, but it seems to be one continuous round of cutbacks at the moment, and there's nothing we can do about it."

The budget will be discussed at the district's cabinet meeting on 4 February and will be approved by the full council on 20 February.