THURROCK Council say they will lose out on over £10 million after the Government announced a funding cut to local authorities.

Thurrock say they were anticipating a cut of £9 million, but the final figure has come in at £10.2 million – a cut of 2.2 percent, above the 1.8 percent national average.

Council leader John Kent said: “The problem is the way the government packages the money. They’re saying there is an average 1.8 per cent reduction, but for us it works out at 2.2 per cent even looking at the government’s complex ‘spending power’ figures.

“But this includes ring-fenced grants like Public Health and even the Thurrock Clinical Commissioning Group’s contribution to the Better Care Fund – a joint council-health scheme that starts in April.”

Councillor Kent added: “If we strip out all of this and just look at the general grant for all traditional council services and compare next year with this year, we’re looking at a 25 per cent reduction for core services – yes, like-for-like, the grant has been reduced by a quarter.

“The government also makes assumptions about what we will bring in in council tax and business rates and we all know that there are major problems with business rates at the moment.”

Included in the “settlement” is a promise of money to develop the plans for widening the A13 between The Manorway and the Orsett Cock junctions to ease traffic congestion associated with the London Gateway port development.

Councillor Kent said: “We have already spoken with the Department for Transport today and confirmed that everything’s on track and meetings have been confirmed for the New Year.”

Overall the scheme will cost around £90 million which includes funding from the port itself agreed in the Local Development Order and a £5 million grant for early next year to complete the design and official business case for the project.