Devon's £10 million rural grant cut

Cross-party condemnation of government move

Devon County Council face a possible £10 million hit to its budget after government moves to scrap a major grant to rural councils.

On Thursday Cllr James McInnes, the Conservative leader of the council, addressed the full council to reveal that the rural services delivery grant is being axed, with a potentially huge impact on the authority’s finances.

A new payment based on supporting deprived areas is being launched in its place, but it is unclear how much Devon will benefit.

Devon receives £10 million of £120 million the grant provides to councils nationally, with the county’s districts getting another £4 million.

Cllr McInnes (Hatherleigh and Chagford) said that he knew people “want Christmas cheer, but I’m not going to be bringing it immediately.

“This is another assault on rural communities where services cost much more to provide because of their sparse nature.

“We’ve already seen this government hit farmers with the iniquitous inheritance tax proposals which threaten many of our family farms and the rural way of life that they support and our many small businesses and employers with the rise in National Insurance contributions.

“The rural services delivery grant is meant to support councils like Devon in helping with the increased cost of providing services in a sparsely-populated county.”

Cllr McInnes said the authority had been on track to produce a balanced budget for the 25/26 financial year, but that the government had “thrown a spanner in the works.”

He continued: “The government has decided to cut the rural services support grant and wrap it up in a new settlement in relation to areas of deprivation, which Devon has never scored well on.”

Cllr McInnes acknowledged that, at this stage, he did not know if the government would provide any alternative cash.

The announcement comes as the council awaits the so-called local government settlement, which is the funding authorities receive from Westminster to help fund services.

“We are facing an immediate challenge to offset the loss of this grant,” he added.

“We are obviously urgently exploring all options across all departments, but this means we will not be able to produce a target budget for next week’s cabinet meeting. Instead that will now come before January’s cabinet.

“I intend to make my feelings about this known very loudly to the government and, yesterday, when I was chairing Team Devon, we agreed to make joint representations on behalf of all the residents of Devon.”

Cllr McInnes said Devon had to maintain one of the biggest road networks in the country, and that its bill for getting children to school is also one of the highest nationally.

Cllr Carol Whitton (Labour, St David’s and Haven Banks) agreed the cut to the grant was a “major concern”. “It is something across all parties that we are deeply concerned about,” she said.

“It isn’t entirely clear what the picture is yet, and I would ask every councillor to do as I have done and speak to their MP to elicit their help in trying to find out exactly what the proposals are and how it affects this county.”

Frank Biederman (Independent, Fremington Rural) said the move was “disappointing” and that he would be “more than happy to sign a letter of objection”.

Martin Wrigley, the Liberal Democrat MP for Newton Abbot, who is still a county councillor, told the chamber that MPs are aware of the issue.

“We are taking movements to get this clarified and are asking urgent questions,” he said.

Cllr Caroline Leaver (Liberal Democrat, Barnstaple South) criticised the government’s move at the late stage in the council’s budget-setting process.

“We do have pockets of deprivation in this county,” she said.

“There is a perception that Devon is full of chocolate-box thatched cottages, and they do exist. However, we do have some wards where there are considerable and pervasive levels of deprivation.”