North will suffer most as wave of cuts is ordered

Jun 11 2010 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

A WAVE of Government cuts have hit the North East worse than any other region.

More than £50m has been extracted from the region, with the money taken from grants for poor areas, cash for deprived children and local transport projects.

The Conservative Liberal Government has ordered the region’s 12 councils to make the cuts this year, forcing many to order schools and charities to drastically scale back their plans.

Some councils may now have to consider staffing cuts, with one already contacting the Government to warn of the difficulty in avoiding large severance payouts which would wipe out the benefits gained from budget cuts.

Ministers have wiped £34m from Area Based Grants which are used for deprived areas. Any blanket reduction in this was always destined to hurt the North East more, council leaders say, as the move does not take into account the greater number of hard up families in the region. And in capital grants, which underpin local road schemes and other building projects, more than £8m was taken.

Nine of the region’s authorities where in the higher bracket for cuts, with just one in London. Durham was one of the worst hit councils with a £16m cut. Simon Henig, leader of the council, said it was noticeable that of the councils with the largest level of cuts the vast majority are in the North of England “where some of these grants are so important in growing our economies”.

He added: “We are already delivering £51.3m efficiencies over the next three years in a planned and measured way including £8.5m this year. Having to find an additional £16.5m in the remainder of this year will be extremely difficult.

“These announcements by the Government will hit us particularly hard in this time of recession and will directly affect some of the communities that need help most.”

Paul Watson, head of the Association of North East Councils, said cutting by percentages causes greater hurt as it does not reflect the needs of less affluent areas.

Speaking in his capacity as Sunderland Council leader, he said: “There are always casualties, and although we feel aggrieved we will role our sleeves up and get on with this.

“We’ll protect services as best we can and make sure the cuts fall in the least sensitive places but there will be difficulties ahead.”