HAMPSHIRE County Council leader Roy Perry has expressed his “deep concerns” following the announcement by the Government that funding for councils for the next four years will be significantly reduced.

Within the provisional local government finance settlement, the county council’s revenue support grant has been cut by £48m next year, which is a decrease of 37 per cent and £29m more than the authority was anticipating.

The significant reduction is due to a change in the way that the Government distributes money to local authorities.

By 2019-20, the county council will no longer receive a support grant.

The Government’s financial plans also assume that all local authorities will raise their council tax by the maximum they are allowed, which for Hampshire would be 3.99 per cent and would include an extra two per cent flexibility in order to pay for the increasing costs of social care. A one per increase in council tax would generate approximately £5m in revenue for the county council.

Responding to the announcement, Mr Perry said: “We are obviously very disappointed with the settlement. We appreciate the need to reduce public spending and we are more than willing to play our part in that, but the change in distribution methodology was not expected and has never been consulted on.

“The loss of an additional £29m grant next year is a most unwelcome surprise, less than four months before the start of the new financial year, and I am concerned that the council tax payers of Hampshire may have to pay more but won’t see the benefit of this in local services.”

He continued: “We will obviously be responding to the Government’s proposals and will make it very clear what the impact of this redistribution will be for Hampshire. I have already written to all Hampshire MPs to explain to them the implications of this announcement. We will also need to think very carefully about what options we may have in setting next year’s budget.”

Hampshire County Council will continue to analyse the figures and respond formally to the Government’s consultation in the new year, in the run up to setting the budget and council tax for 2016-17 next February.