GLOOM DESPITE GRANT INCREASE

For the first time, local authorities are being told how much they will have to spend on services for each of the next two years. The Government has increased its share of funding for East Sussex by 2% (1.6m) for 2006/07 and 2.5% for 2007/08 for services outside schools, such as caring for elderly residents, managing the disposal of waste and maintaining our roads. This means that, under the Government's new approach to funding, local residents will be paying a massive 70% towards the cost of services while the Government will foot the bill for less than 30%.

Deputy Council Leader, Tony Reid said: "Despite a slightly better than feared settlement the future continues to look very difficult. Thankfully we were prudent in our planning and we've made massive efficiency savings of 15m over the last three years. But cuts in services are inevitable if we are to keep the council tax increase below 5% - even a 5% increase is more than most people can afford.

"The Government claims East Sussex has been given increases every year but what they don't say is that all the extra funding is 'ring-fenced' for schools. For example, in the last 3 years, from 2003/04 to 2005/06, we have received no general grant increase for any of our services outside schools.

"We will be given a 2% increase on the government element for next year which itself is below inflation. In cash terms, central government's increase of 1.6m it is still only 0.6% of our budget outside schools.

"I would like to thank all the residents and organisations who have written arguing the case for East Sussex. We have all lobbied hard for a fairer deal and we think the Minister has listened. He has promised to take another look over the next few years at how council funding is distributed. But the plain fact is that for next year, we only have an extra 1.6m for services outside of schools. Even simple inflation adds 6m to our costs but when you add the extra number of elderly clients requiring care and increased waste disposal costs to the list, we need 16m more just to standstill."

Councillor Reid said that nationally the deal for local government was better than expected but East Sussex, along with all the South East counties, is still suffering from what he sees as an unfair grant system.

"The separate grants for our schools is good news but the Government must recognise that it isn't providing enough for all our other services, particularly care for the elderly. We will continue to argue our case with Government as strongly as we can. In the meantime our council tax payers continue to pick up an unfair burden".