County council expecting a ‘disappointing’ settlement from the Government after the decision to scrap the £9 million Rural Services Delivery Grant.

Lincolnshire County Council is expecting a ‘disappointing’ settlement from the Government, particularly after the decision to scrap the £9 million Rural Services Delivery Grant.

Councils across the country are set to receive their finance settlements from central Government, which allocates spending power to local authorities, by Thursday, December 19.

However, with added pressure from changes in national insurance policy, leaders at Lincolnshire County Council believe there is a ‘clear risk’ that it may not receive as much funding as in previous years.

During a meeting of the council's Executive on Tuesday, Andrew Crookham, deputy chief executive and executive director of resources at LCC, explained that many elements were ‘up in the air this year’ after the government decided to scrap the Rural Services Delivery Grant, stating the funding stream was ‘no longer fit for purpose’.

With this in mind, he stated that ‘on the face of it’, this year's settlement would be disappointing.

After the meeting, leader Martin Hill (Con) outlined his concerns, stating that the council is currently facing a £30 million loss of income.

He explained: "We're now waiting for our individual county council settlement from government.

"We are concerned because they have now abolished something called the Rural Services Delivery Grant, which is worth £9 million to the county council.

"We are also concerned about the impacts of the national insurance policy changes, so there will be a £5 million direct impact on our employees, but also we estimate a £15 million impact for all our contractors who provide our services.

"So, there is about a £30 million cost or loss of income to us. The government has made it clear that they are going to give additional money, so we will wait and see how that works out."

He later highlighted that extra demand for services is creating pressures of around £40 million.

Coun Hill continued: "The other issue is, of course, that we have extra costs. We always face extra demand, particularly in areas like social care – with more numbers coming in – and home/school transport. There is another £40 million worth of pressures there.

"We will wait and see where we end up with the final settlement, but we are particularly concerned about the loss of the Rural Services Delivery Grant. Although the government has said it will cover it, we're not confident at this stage it will be enough to fill the gap."