Council to campaign for a fairer deal

Shropshire Council won’t survive unless it gets a fairer deal from the government.

That is the stark warning from its leader, Heather Kidd, who is urging opposition leaders to join her in her fight.

Every four in five pounds that taxpayers spend goes towards social care in Shropshire, and it’s got to the point, says Councillor Heather Kidd, where the council is struggling to make ends meet.

“Rural counties, particularly ours, have significantly been underfunded for a very long time,” said Cllr Kidd.

“People move here, and 15 years later they need social care.

“This has been a significant problem over the last 20, 30 years and we’re now reaching a point where it is very difficult to actually make ends meet.

“Delivering those services over rural areas costs a lot of money, especially when we have fuel prices the way they are. Sending carers out 25 and 40 miles to do a few drops, seeing people and travelling on for another half an hour costs money that doesn’t have to be found in the more urban areas.

“We will be running quite a campaign on this because we cannot wait for the 2028 review of funding of social care that the Government has put in place.

“That review is welcome but it’s just taking too long, and for many councils like us, we will not survive unless we are very vocal about the issues we have across the board. They are statutory issues, service we have to deliver, and we work really hard with partners to deliver them at the lowest possible cost.

“We are now in a position that four in five pounds that the council payer provides us is spent on social care. I do not want the people who require social care and have run out of their own funds to be penalised by the public for us not being able to deliver other services because of the costs.

“I am sure the opposition will join us in lobbying the Government to make sure that we get a fairer deal out of this because we can’t exist without.”

Opposition MPs have also criticised the Government for failing to mention rural areas in its spending review.

“People in Shropshire were failed by the Conservatives and now they are being let down by Labour,” said Helen Morgan, the Liberal Democrats MP for North Shropshire.

“The spending review included nothing for Shropshire, nothing for rural areas and no serious plan to fix social care.

“The NHS and council services will not be fixed until social care is sorted and growth will not be achieved until the Government backs small businesses.

“Rachel Reeves promised growth but all she has delivered is disappointment.”

Stuart Anderson, the Conservative MP for South Shropshire, added: “The Chancellor should have used the Spending Review to change direction and steer us towards growth. However, her decisions neglect the needs of rural areas like South Shropshire.

“Her spending plans are almost exclusively focused on big cities at the expense of rural areas, where our farmers will lose vital sustaining farming funding we introduced. This contradicts a speech she gave only last week, where she committed to ensuring everyone has the same opportunities to thrive and succeed.”

However, Julia Buckley, the Labour MP for Shrewsbury, said “it was a great day.”

“The budget for farming is increasing to £2.7 billion a year for the sustainable farming initiative,” she said.

“Likewise for businesses, the good news is there’ll be access to finance so borrowing through the British Business Bank will increase to £25 billion to help businesses start and grow.

“And then for transport, there’ll be an increase in the Local Transport Grant that goes to local authorities to help them with cycle lanes, buses and also reducing congestion -something we really care about in Shrewsbury.

“So it’s a great day for Shrewsbury and a great day for the country with fantastic investments across the board.”