AN MP has accused the Government of “reneging on its responsibility” to fund local Government properly.

In a House of Commons debate on funding for local authorities Stockton North Labour MP Alex Cunningham said Stockton Borough Council was surviving on less than half the Government grant it had in 2010/11.

He said: “People are noticing the differences, potholes, grass verges, graffiti, fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour and many other things basic to everyday life come to mind.”

Mr Cunningham said: “There is the knowledge that the day is beckoning when either the funding is provided or councillors in Stockton will be delivering the most basic of services stripped to the statutory minimum and rationed.”

The MP added: “Councils want certainty over future budgets and a dose of honesty from the Government who have reneged on their responsibilities to fund councils properly, instead passing the buck to councillors to raise council tax higher and higher to maintain statutory services.”

Mr Cunningham asked Housing, Communities and Local Government Minister Rishi Sunak - the Conservative MP for Richmond - if he recognised the very specific link between deprivation and the number of children taken into care by our local authorities and what he was going to do about it.

Mr Sunak said the Government was working with the Department for Education to understand the drivers of need for children’s services, including deprivation, and a report was due later this year or early next year.

He said the current administration had recognised the pressures facing local councils who were seeing a real-terms increase in financial resources over the next two years and benefitting from an extra £2bn in social care funding.