Oxfordshire County Council’s Ian Hudspeth said the PM had made ‘inaccurate’ comments about cuts
“Excluding schools, our total government grants have fallen from £194m in 2009/10 to £122m a year in 2015/16, and are projected to keep falling at a similar rate,” the council leader said.
“I cannot accept your description of a drop in funding of £72m or 37% as a ‘slight fall’.”
The Conservative councillor also explained that an assertion by the PM that only £204m in cuts had been made in the local area was in fact wrong and that £626m had in fact been cut.
He said a suggestion by the PM that excess council property be sold off to fund services as a “creative” solution “neither legal, nor sustainable in the long-term since they are one-off receipts”.
Oxfordshire’s desperate budget situation comes despite it being one of the most wealthy counties in the UK.
An analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies released before the general election found that cuts to council budgets were sharpest in the UK’s poorest areas.
Inner-city boroughs like Tower Hamlets have lost out by 42.1 per cent since 2010 while leafier areas have comparatively escaped the axe.
Figures collated by Labour over the summer found that the 10 most deprived councils were facing cuts 18 times higher than that of the 10 richest councils.
A spokesperson for David Cameron said: “There is still significant scope for sensible savings across local government to be made by back office consolidation, disposing of surplus property and joining up our local public services; we will be discussing with Oxfordshire how this can be taken forward to help protect frontline services.”
Mr Hudspeth told the same newspaper he did not want to comment on leaked private correspondence not meant for publication.
Credit: – Jon Stone/The Independent
