Graham Stuart MP welcomes significant funding boost for East Riding Council

Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, has welcomed the Government’s confirmation that East Riding Council will see its core budget increase by £17.7 million this year – a 7.2% increase.

This is higher than the average increase of 4.4% for local authorities across the country, which is the largest year-on-year real terms increase in a decade as part of the Government’s commitment to boost funding for public services in the coming decade.

Confirmed this month by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Local Government Finance Settlement will protect funding for key local services and dedicate extra resources to areas that most need it.

Part of this includes an additional £1.5 billion for social care, which means that local authorities now have access to over £5.5 billion of dedicated funding across adult and children’s social care for 2020/21.

It has also been confirmed that the Rural Services Delivery Grant will be maintained at its highest ever level, at £81 million. This previously increased from £15.5 million to £80.5 million while Graham was Chair of the Rural Fair Share Campaign which sought to address the funding gap between urban and rural areas.

Commenting on the rise, Graham said: “Local councils provide crucial services that people rely on every day, from collecting the bins to looking after vulnerable people in our community.

“I’m delighted that East Riding will get an extra £17 million this year to further improve services for residents across Beverley and Holderness, as we follow through on our commitment to deliver improvements for people across the country – not just in London and the South East.

“I work with the council on countless matters, from helping them secure funding for coastal defences at Withernsea to looking into provision of adult education, so I’m glad that this extra funding will help them to deliver even better services.”