THE region’s councils will see their spending power cut by about £44 million next year as a result of the latest Government funding settlement.

Middlesbrough-born Local Government Secretary Greg Clark said the length of the four year funding package the Government was proposing for councils, running up to 2019/20, was unprecedented and allowed them to plan ahead with confidence.

He also said the importance of funding adult social care, given an ageing population, had been recognised with an additional £3.5 billionn of funds being made available.

Ministers, however, were clear that savings were still needed. Total funding for local councils will fall by 2.8 per cent in 2016/17, before rising again so that by 2019/20 it was “virtually unchanged”, the announcement said.

The Northern Echo based its estimate on ‘core spending power’ figures published by the Department for Communities and Local Government and related to it to the five Tees Valley councils, along with county councils in Durham and North Yorkshire.

Core spending power measures the overall revenue funding available to councils, including council tax and other funding streams.

County Councillor Simon Henig, the leader of Durham County Council, which will see its core spending power drop from £402 million this financial year to £385.5 million in 2016/17, said the financial settlement had been “slightly better at the margins than what we expected”.

Cllr Henig said the council might be £10 million better off by 2020 in terms of its savings targets, but warned that there was still huge savings to be made, thought to be more than £300 million.

He also said the Government’s figures were based on the assumption that local authorities would raise council tax by a maximum of two per cent.

Councillor Bob Cook, leader of Stockton Borough Council, suggested the cuts it faced were more severe than it had expected. Its core spending power will reduce from £141 million this year to £137 million in 2016/17.

He said over the last five years it had faced funding reductions of £52 million and was already making plans to find £17 million of savings over the next three years.

Cllr Cook said: “We will continue to do all we can to protect our most vulnerable residents, but it is inevitable that there will be further job losses and cuts to services.”

A Darlington Council spokesman said on first inspection the settlement meant it would have to reduce its expenditure by approximately £12 million a year from its current annual budget of £86 million.

Councillor Sue Jeffrey, leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council said it had once again received significantly reduced funding from the Government, having already made £53 million worth of cuts and shed 1,191 posts.

A Hartlepool Council spokesman said the Government’s determination that by the end of the decade councils will be financed solely from revenues raised locally, including council tax and businesses rates, rather than reliance on a central grant “concerns us greatly”.

This was because the rateable value of the town’s nuclear power station had been reduced by 48 per cent, costing the council £3.9 million in lost income every year.

CORE SPENDING POWER

COUNCIL 2015/16 (adjusted) 2016/17 2017/18 2018-19 2019/20

Darlington £80.546m £78.499m £77.496m £78.735m £81.043m

Durham £402.059m £385.586m £377.738m £383.388m £392.336m

Hartlepool £82.982m £79.748m £77.976m £78.665m £80.133m

Middlesbrough £122.276m £117.474m £114.671m £115.652m £117.632m

North Yorkshire £368.334m £358.017m £356.386m £367.296m £381.302m

Redcar £114.980m £111.333m £109.737m £111.964m £115.132m

Stockton £141.050m £137.001m £135.352m £137.502m £141.593m