Government 'taking rural Shropshire for granted' after think tank finds funding errors
An MP has said the Government is taking for granted rural Shropshire after a think tank revealed it was among a number of areas missing out on the right amount of funding due to the use of out of date figures.
The level of funding allocated for a range of key public services is often below the amount required to meet the needs of many poorer communities, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found.
The think tank said the Government's use of old data to distribute funding has led to significant gaps between the share some areas receive and the amount they would be given if allocations were calculated using more up-to-date estimations of local demand.
While NHS funding was "relatively well-targeted", the IFS said the system of funding for local government has "broken down" and said that only 39 council areas out of 150 received a share of funding that was within five per cent of their share of estimated spending needs.
Analysis of the £245 billion available across the NHS, schools, local government, police and public health in 2022-23 showed the highest levels of funding per capita were allocated to inner London boroughs and relatively deprived areas in the North of England.
