Government urged to give more support to rural communities

Stratford District Council is backing a call to the government to give more money to rural authorities to cover the higher cost of providing services to their residents.  

Councillor Trevor Russel, its deputy leader, said the Council was "100%" behind SPARSE, a coalition of more than 60 of England's most rural local authorities, in lobbying ministers to change the local government finance system to give more support to countryside communities.  

"A new SPARSE study this week confirms beyond doubt what we've always known - that it costs more to provide services in rural areas than in towns and cities", said Cllr Russel, who is the Council's lead member on rural issues.  

"Even within districts, as we know, it costs more to deliver the same level of service to households in the more rural areas than in urban areas. For example, the study shows that there can be significant premiums for refuse collection in rural areas compared with urban parts - as much as 90%.  

"The Council has to deliver services across a huge district, one of the largest in the country. We are committed to delivering, and we do deliver, the same level and quality of service to residents wherever they live. But there is a heavy cost to doing so.  

"The government doesn't take enough account of the sparsity factor affecting councils like ours. Indeed, it clobbers rural councils by giving them less grant than their urban counterparts, and it has actually made things worse by switching grants away from rural areas to authorities in London. 

"Ministers are publishing proposals on local government reform in the autumn, and SPARSE is pressing them hard to promise changes that take account of the extra cost of providing services in rural areas. We are 100% behind those efforts."