POST-BREXIT plans to allocate funding to less well-off towns which have been hit hard by austerity cuts have been labelled as a ‘drop in the ocean’ by leaders in Barnsley.
The £1.6bn government package - dubbed the Stronger Towns Fund - was announced on Monday and will offer investment to places which have not benefited from economic growth as much as other parts of the country.
The majority of the cash, £1bn, will be allocated across the country and the remaining £600m will be ring-fenced for local authorities to bid for.
Yorkshire and the Humber is in line to receive £197m, but Barnsley Council leader Sir Steve Houghton told the Chronicle that it was ‘nowhere near enough’ to plug the annual funding cuts the local authority has been forced into dealing with in Barnsley.
“It’s welcome in one sense, as is every penny that we get, but it’s also a drop in the ocean and it’s simply not enough for towns like Barnsley which have had to save millions every year.
“Yorkshire and the Humber has about 12 top-tier councils and that means there will be about £20m over a seven-year period for Barnsley - simply not enough to transform hard-hit areas such as Grimethorpe.
“It’s a bit of a smokescreen in reality, and it’s a Brexit bribe. Anything that’s allocated locally will go to the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) in Sheffield and that simply isn’t right as this should come straight into the towns it’s meant to benefit.
“In reality it is not going to change anything radically for the communities hit hardest in recent years.”
Since 2010, the council has made savings of an estimated £107m, including £5.8m which will be made in the next financial year.
Jobs across the council have also been cut by nearly 40 per cent as a knock-on effect, with 36 more potential job losses expected in 2019-20.
Leaders say it now has a stable financial plan in place - despite Barnsley being one of the worst-hit places in the country for austerity cuts.
Barnsley Central MP and Sheffield City Region Mayor Dan Jarvis told the Chronicle he echoed Coun Houghton’s assessment of the scheme and called on the government to give serious consideration to a Yorkshire devolution plan in order to unlock much-needed funds.
He added: “The government’s announcement of £1.6bn equates to only £5.63 per person, per year in Yorkshire. It is a drop in the ocean of the funding needed to reverse the devastating damage of a decade of austerity which has seen Barnsley hit hardest by cuts of £145m.
“If the government is serious about helping ‘left-behind towns’ then it must commit to much greater investment in the north and give serious consideration to a ‘One Yorkshire’ devolution deal that will help unlock £30bn each year for our region.
“A devolution deal on this scale will enable our region to take control of our own decision-making process and harness local people’s sense of cultural identity with Yorkshire.
“The government has failed to give proper consideration to the case we have made for One Yorkshire.
“I will continue to campaign for the devolution deal that is right for Barnsley, and that local people overwhelmingly support.”
Stephanie Peacock, MP for Barnsley East, challenged the proposals in the House of Commons this week and said the town’s residents wouldn’t be fooled by the ‘derisory offer’.
“It has taken the government almost a decade to finally acknowledge what people across the country have been telling them for too long - that their policy of austerity has had a devastating impact on our communities,” she added.
“Any money to address the damage caused by this government to towns like Barnsley is welcome, but the derisory offer falls woefully short of what’s required to do so.
“The token gesture won’t fool people in Barnsley, where people have seen first-hand the damage the Tories continue to inflict on our community.”
