SOMERSET County Council leader John Osman has accused the Government of being biased towards other English regions after learning his authority will receive £1million less than it predicted.

His comments follow this week’s announcement of the Local Government Finance Settlement.

The county council says the £1million shortfall is on top of a £21million drop in the Government’s county council funding for 2015/16 – from £63million in 2014/15 down to £42.3million.

Cllr Osman has now called on the Government to redress the balance between the South-West and other regions, and is demanding “Somerset pounds for Somerset people”.

He said: “I am deeply disappointed with the settlement. Not only has the Government failed to redress its unfair funding across the rural South-West authorities, in its bias towards England’s South East and North it is effectively acting to send what is much-needed Somerset taxpayer's money to elsewhere in the country.

“What’s more, while the settlement is roughly £1million less than we had anticipated – which some might argue is not vast in the grand scheme – it hides a much bigger issue.

“It takes no account of the rising cost of delivering services, nor the relentlessly increasing demand for services, particularly those that support our elderly residents and children.”

The preferred measure used by Central Government, that of councils'

“spending power”, which appears to paint a positive picture for the county council, is not a true indicator of the scale of the challenges the council faces, Cllr Osman added.

“No matter what measure is used, the funding for Somerset fails to keep pace with rising cost and demand, and that means that we, like other authorities, have more savings to make with all the extremely difficult decisions that come with that,” he said.

“Now, more so than ever, we need Somerset pounds for Somerset people.”

Sedgemoor District Council says the implications of the funding announcement for local people are small.

A spokesperson said: “The figures are very complex and our finance people have to work through the implications, but based on initial analysis they are not significantly different from those estimated in the Medium Term Financial Plan.

“Our accountants are relatively good at predicting the settlements; all our forecasts are in the Medium Term Financial Plan and last year we set a balanced two-year budget.”

Most local authority funding comes from central government, with about a quarter raised through council tax.

Government minister Kris Hopkins said the funding grants settlement for 2015-16 was “fair for all parts of the country”.

He said no council would face a loss of more than 6.4%.