THE Government’s contribution to Northumberland County Council’s budget will remain the same next year, halting – if nothing else – years of reductions.

The provisional figures, which are subject to consultation until January 16, show the authority will receive a settlement of £79.4 million in 2021-22 - the same as the current year. This total, which includes the revenue support grant, baseline funding and various tariffs and top-ups, has decreased from £104.5 million in 2016-17 to £92.2 million the following year, £85.3 million in 2018-19, £80.4 million in 2019-20 to the current level, with the main reduction coming in the revenue support grant.

However, the Government has promised the overall deal will mean that core spending power for local authorities will increase by 4.5 per cent in cash terms in 2021-22.

The national package includes a £1 billion increase in social care funding, a further £1.55 billion to help with the ongoing Covid response, £622 million to continue the New Homes Bonus in 2021-22, an increase of £4 million to a total of £85 million for the Rural Services Delivery Grant and a new, one-off £111-million Lower Tier Services Grant.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the broad outline of the settlement had been unveiled, Coun. Nick Oliver, the Conservative cabinet member for corporate services, said: “If it all comes through as we expect, then it’s a good settlement and better than we expected in our planning for the budget. That said, we are still keen to find efficiencies. We are not rowing back from the savings plans we had, but we won’t need to use reserves as planned.”