IT may not be a great deal in the context of the big picture but there is finally an acknowledgement that local government funding cuts have gone too far in some areas.

Local Government Secretary Greg Clark announced last night that he had listened to the concerns of councils and pledged that the hardest hit authorities across England would be given an extra £300m over the next two years.

As a Teessider, Mr Clark will know that the North-East has been particularly hard hit by the Government’s disproportionate funding formula so it is to be hoped that his hardship fund will be used to help ease the latest round of spending cuts in this region.

Following pressure from Conservative MPs, Mr Clark also announced a £93m funding boost for rural councils, insisting that no rural area would be worse off than towns and cities.

These are, of course, welcome announcements but the extra money will be thinly spread and it is disappointing that we are now into February and town halls are still trying to work out the exact implications for their budgets for the new financial year. The timetable is surely too tight to allow proper planning.

That said, Mr Clark's intervention underlines the value of taking the case for fairer funding to the Government.

Following last week’s announcement of further cuts which threaten the identity of a town like Darlington, The Northern Echo launched a petition, urging the Government to review its unfair funding formula.

Our petition – which can be viewed and signed at petition.parliament.uk/petitions/120696 – had topped 7,000 by last night and we hope the momentum continues.

Darlington in the north is seeing its budget slashed to the core, while Wokingham in the south will enjoy an increase in spending power. How can that be right?