£228.36 per head - MP reveals Hull Council cuts bombshell

Hull City Council is to lose £228.36 in Whitehall funding for every person in Hull by 2015.

This new and updated figure was revealed today (13 February) by Hull North MP Diana Johnson in the House of Common's during her speech against the Coalition Government's latest round of local government spending cuts.

Lib Dem and Tory MPs voted through this latest round of council cuts in the Commons this evening.

In the first two years of the Coalition Government, Hull's central government funding was cut by £163.50 per head, compared to the national average of £74 per head.

Now these new figures, which add cuts being made in the next two years, show that Hull would have lost £228.36 in council funding from central government for every person between 2010 and 2015.

This is the 19th highest cuts per head total in the whole country and is despite Hull being the country's tenth most deprived area.

The Hull North MP has launched a Fair Deal for Hull petition campaign against the unfair concentration of central government spending cuts on the most deprived areas.

The Fair Deal for Hull petition is available for anyone in Hull wanting to help collect petition signatures from the petition page of Diana Johnson MP's website at www.dianajohnson.co.uk or from her office on 01482 319135.

The Hull North MP will be out in Bransholme collecting names for the petition this Saturday morning (16 February).

An online e-petition supporting the Fair Deal for Hull campaign was also launched today at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/45719.

Hull North MP Diana Johnson said: "We already knew that in the past two years Hull has lost £163.50 for each person in Government funding, compared with a national average loss of £74 per head.

"Now these updated figures add on the funding settlement for the next two years that Lib Dem and Tory MPs have just voted through the Commons and shows that Hull would have lost £228.36 per head by 2015.

"Whatever people think about the Government's overall cut to local government funding nationally, it's grossly unfair to people in the tenth most deprived local authority area in the country to face deeper cuts to local services than many wealthier areas.

"Worse still, Coalition benefit changes this April will see the poorest forced to pay towards Council Tax bills in the same month as 8,000 millionaires will get an average windfall of £107,000 from the cut to the 50p tax rate. This is why Labour is campaigning for a Fair Deal for Hull."

Supporting the Fair Deal for Hull campaign, Hilary Benn MP, Labour's Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, said: "David Cameron and Eric Pickles are living in a world of their own. They simply don't understand the impact that Coalition decisions on funding are having on services and the local people who use and rely upon them.

"We already knew cuts were being targeted in an unfair way at the poorest people in the most deprived areas. Now the Pickles' Poll Tax - council tax rises for the poorest come in on the same day in April as a tax cut for millionaires.

"While Hull, the country's tenth most deprived area is getting a £228.36 per head cut from the Government between 2010 and 2015, David Cameron's West Oxfordshire one of the richest parts of the country will gain 3.1% in spending power in 2013/14. It's simply wrong and unfair."

ENDS