The Rural Services Network (RSN), which represents more than 200 countryside organisations, claimed this week that Whitehall funding formulas were disadvantaging rural councils across the country.

The body believes that rural authorities have more than £100 per head less to spend compared to urban councils.

The organisation says people living in rural areas pay higher council tax bills to account for the lower government grants awarded to their local authorities, but this is still not enough to bridge the funding gap. RSN warns public services in rural areas face ruin because of the disparity.

The complaint is not a new one. Successive governments have failed to take account of sparsity when tinkering with local funding formulas. They have failed to realise that it is more expensive to deliver the same level of services in rural areas. Or if they have recognised the problem, they have failed to act.

Shortly before Parliament was dissolved for the General Election, the coalition government announced an increase in funding for local authorities covering the most sparsely populated areas of the country.

The news was welcomed by RSN with the caveat that the proposal would make little difference to the financial injustice which rural authorities have suffered for years.