Finance

Our work on Local Government Finance is split into two areas, the Fairer Funding  campaign and a financial analysis of local authority budgets.
 

Fairer Funding

• SPARSE Rural as an organisation defends the rural interest and the Sparsity Allowance in the Local Government funding formulae.
  

• We consider the formula funding to be woefully inadequate.  It goes nowhere near to meeting the higher costs of operating essential services in rural areas.

Did you know that:

• Spending Power per head is £99 less in rural areas than in urban areas … yet …

• Council Tax is £79 higher per head in rural areas than in urban areas … this is because …
  

• Formula Grant is £178 lower per head in rural areas than urban areas.

Put simply, rural communities are paying more for less provision in their local areas.

Rural Fair Share Group

The Rural Fair Share Group is a grouping of parliamentarians who have come together to argue for fairer funding for services across rural England. The Secretary of the Group is Graham Stuart MP.

Click here to view a presentation on Spending Power Analysis from March 2013 comparing Rural and Urban areas.

Click here to see the Governments Pledge on Rural Services

Local Government Finance Settlement

Below is an analysis provided to local authorities and rural MPs in January 2014 which illustrates the current rural to urban divide in the financial settlement 2014:

- Local Government Finance Settlement Analysis

Future areas of work:

• Early Review of Localisation of Business Rates

Financial Analysis

We provide a range of analysis for local authorities, considering their individual RA position (revenue estimate) and RO position (Revenue Outturn) compared with other authorities and groups of authorities: