Anger as government “cuts Scilly adrift”
Isles of Scilly MP, Andrew George, has rounded on government ministers who he accuses of “cutting the Isles of Scilly adrift”.
He says the government’s promised so-called “bespoke” funding settlement for the islands will leave the Council with a £3 million black hole over the three-year funding round.
Andrew said, “Ministers have cupped their ears and refused to listen. Though a £3m black hole may seem small beer to most local authorities, it’s an unbridgeable chasm for the Isles of Scilly.
“This settlement is only “bespoke” to suit the government. Not the islands’ Council. The minister didn’t believe me when I warned the Council would face bankruptcy if she went ahead with the funding settlement. Though she has promised to meet me, and Council representatives, I fear it’s already too late.
“The government is also refusing to address the severe and extortionate transport costs for the islands. There is nothing anywhere close to equivalent for inter-island boat travel to the £3 bus fare cap that you get on the mainland. It’s £120 for a return fare from the off-islands to St Mary’s for essential health appointments or provisions at this time of year. Subsidised transport is available for Scottish Islands. This simply adds to the severe inequality”.
In a statement, Councillor Robert Francis, Chairman of the Council of the Isles of Scilly said:
“The Local Government Settlement is extremely disappointing and a real blow for the islands. Over the past 5 years, the Council has worked consistently with Government officials from both the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Transport with the specific aim of helping them to understand the unique and complex challenges and inequalities faced by our community on a daily basis. We have been clear throughout that these issues cannot be adequately addressed without an increase in our funding settlement.
“During this period, officials have repeatedly told us that they understand these challenges are unlike those experienced elsewhere in the UK, and that we are simply not able to address them in the same way, or without further funding. Our attempts to seek reassurance that the islands’ unique circumstances would be adequately reflected in future funding arrangements were met with responses that nothing could be done to address our funding shortfall until the fairer funding review could be used as a vehicle for these decisions. During the long wait for this review, we were led to believe that ‘fairer funding’ would mean fairer funding for Scilly. This has not been the case – and if anything, we are in a worse position as a result of the review.
“We believe the criteria Government has based our allocation on is deeply flawed. We have already pointed out that assumptions made around Council Tax and second homes are incorrect, but the settlement was announced without any correction to these errors. The review promised to help Councils better meet the needs of communities disadvantaged by their geographical remoteness and lack of access to basic services – but our island-based Council was not even included on the list of authorities affected by these issues, and we now feel our most complex problems are being deliberately ignored. For instance, we still have no answer from Government as to why we are the only area in the UK that is not covered by a Local Transport Authority, meaning we are precluded from any funding and investment in public transport.
“Our Council is inspected by Government bodies with the same intensity and regularity as large mainland unitary authorities, which inspectors recognise have vastly greater levels of resource and do not share many of the issues we must address. However, we are still lacking the funding uplift necessary for us to fully comply with Government’s ever-increasing requirements and recommendations. We welcome and share Government’s ambitions for every community in the UK to be able to access and sustain high quality services – but our funding allocation has been out of step with this ambition for years, and equality of opportunity for our residents just took another hit.
“By accepting, last summer, that the Council of the Isles of Scilly needs a bespoke funding arrangement, Government acknowledged that we are not adequately accommodated by national funding formulas. This gave us hope that Government had finally recognised the impact of this legacy of underfunding and would set it right with the necessary uplift. Instead, the new settlement has left us with a funding gap that we simply cannot overcome without emergency measures.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the relevance of the islands to Government’s national agenda, and the need for further support for a functioning community to exist here in the future, are not recognised by those making decisions for us in Westminster. We are left with no choice but to continue to challenge this government to do what is right, fair and reasonable for these islands.”