Esher and Walton MP picks funding formula fight (From Surrey Comet)

Esher and Walton MP picks funding formula fight

3:40pm Wednesday 15th September 2010 in News By Jonathan Portlock

Esher and Walton MP Dominic Raab has written a joint letter with five other MPs in Surrey, requesting a review of the Government’s local funding formula for Surrey.

The letter to Communities Minister Bob Neill said: “As MPs for Surrey, we are writing concerning the fairness of the formula - in terms of both the general criteria applied and the particular implications it has for our constituents.

“It is especially important, in times of spending restraint, that the criteria for funding public services are transparent, objective and fair.”

Commenting on the letter, Mr Raab said: “Surrey taxpayers pay more than £5bn a year to the Government, but get back just a third of the national average level of funding for local services.

“The current formula is opaque. It is subject to undue ministerial discretion and it does not take proper account of our infrastructure needs, or the pockets of local deprivation in Elmbridge and across the county.

“We face tough spending decisions in the months ahead. So, it is vital that the criteria for allocating funding for our roads, schools, policing and other services are based on an objective assessment of need - not the politicised priorities of the last government.”