Kirklees’ Chief Financial Officer has set the record straight on exactly what the government’s £146m funding settlement will mean for the council.
Local MPs from Huddersfield, Colne Valley and Spen Valley recently welcomed a £146.3m government funding boost for Kirklees Council over the next three years. But this doesn’t mean that the local authority will be handed this amount in extra cash.
The reality of the matter was set out at Friday’s (16 January) meeting of the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee by Service Director for Finance, Kevin Mulvaney. He told the meeting that in real terms, the council is set to receive an additional £6m in 2026/27, plus an extra £4.5m ringfenced for children and families, homelessness and public health, than had been anticipated.
Mr Mulvaney explained that the £146m figure is the government’s measure of “Core Spending Power” (CSP) – a calculation which takes into account central government funding, locally raised revenue – like Council Tax and Business Rates – and grants. The total assumes that Kirklees will increase Council Tax by 4.99 per cent each year, with this said to account for around half of the £146m.
But Kirklees has fared better than many other local authorities, with their boost in CSP equating to 8.1 per cent, against a national average of 5.7 per cent.
Councillor Charles Greaves (Independent, Holme Valley North) said: “When I heard the £146m, the sceptic in me assumed to hold back before I started working up massive budget amendments. I suppose I take umbrage to the government ‘giving’ – Steve [Mawson], if you gave me a tenner, I’ve got an extra tenner, but if you tell me to take 10 quid from my back pocket and put it in my left hand, you’ve not really given me anything, and that’s a bit like factoring in the Council Tax – government’s not giving us that, our rate payers are.
“It’s all part of the game of politics, I suppose, but I wish they’d give us the truer number rather than assuming what we’re going to take from other people. I don’t see that as the government giving us anything.”
Chief Executive, Steve Mawson, said the figure is correct in reflecting Kirklees’ increased needs from 2024 to 2028, but acknowledged that the way it is used has to be “tempered carefully”. Mr Mulvaney, said that the measure of CSP has been used by successive governments across the political spectrum.
Cabinet Member for Finance and Regeneration, Cllr Graham Turner said that this is the first time since he was elected in 2012 that there has been a “real increase” of government cash into Kirklees Council. He said this represents a “step change”, with the current government recognising that local government has been “starved of cash” and investing more fairly in the areas that need it.
Councillor Greaves added: “I welcome what’s probably going to be about £30m of additional funding over the next three years from central government but I think it’s important that everybody knows that it’s not £146m of new money, and, again, I think something really important for everybody to get over is that this factors in year on year five per cent increases in Council Tax for our residents.”
