NORTH Yorkshire residents are paying nearly twice as much council tax as those living in some of the most exclusive boroughs of London - and receive less central Government funding.

North Yorkshire County Council has called for fairer funding for rural councils as it waits to see what it's funding settlement will be from the Government, following the budget announcement. Council leader Carl Les says without fairer funding for sparsely populated rural councils, there will be “very hard choices ahead”. He says they are facing the prospect of austerity continuing through to 2022.

The council says people in North Yorkshire pay almost twice as much council tax as those in urban and London boroughs like Camden and Westminster - which contains some of the most expensive property in Europe - and receive less Government funding. Delivering the same services cost more in such a large and sparsely populated rural area. The county also has a high percentage of older people.

“We are a high performing, low spending council praised for having an innovative can-do culture,” said council leader, Cllr Carl Les.

“But we are concerned that overall the needs of rural areas are given low priority. We continue to protect the frontline and we are developing as an ambitious and commercial council that can generate its own income. But without fairer long-term funding we face very hard choices ahead”.

By April 2019 the council is due to receive no core government funding whereas some councils such as those in London will continue to receive significant levels of government funding.

The Government awarded some transitional relief in the last budget for rural authorities to offset the downward trend in grant income but that is due to run out this year.

Long term, the county council has to save a further £43m from its revenue budget by 2019/20.

This gives a total of £169.4m saved over the decade - which represents a reduction of 34 per cent in the council’s spending power.

At the same time, the county council says it is seeking to address important longer term needs and is using one-off money for major projects such as the A59 realignment at Kex Gill between Harrogate and Skipton; coastal erosion projects in Scarborough and Whitby; replacing street light bulbs with more efficient LEDs; and delivering superfast broadband across as much of the county as possible. These initiatives involve over £30m of one-off investment.

The details of the county council’s funding settlement from Government are expected just a few weeks after the Chancellor's Budget Statement on Thursday (November 22) and councillors will meet to consider the council’s proposed budget on February 21.