Not so Fair Funding 2.0 for Westmorland and Furness with Substantial Reduction in Government Funding

Government has announced funding allocations for local councils under its new “Fair Funding 2.0” system of allocation that has seen Westmorland and Furness Council hit with some of the biggest cuts to funding for deliver of council services in the country with an almost 39% cut to funding from Government with the council expected to loose £40million in government funding by 2028.

Cllr Andrew Jarvis, Westmorland and Furness council's Cabinet Member for Finance, said initial assessment of this week's local authorities funding allocation for the three years from 2026/27 was every bit as bleak as had been anticipated.

First analysis of the settlement shows a reduction in the Government grant of more than 30% between 2025/26 and 2028/29.

At their meeting on Tuesday (16 December) Cabinet members had expressed their concerns the council could be facing substantial funding cuts under the Government's Fair Funding Review.

After receiving confirmation of the funding that would be available, Cllr Jarvis said: "There is no doubt that what has been presented is a substantial reduction in government grant and an overall real terms reduction in funding for services in Westmorland and Furness.

"We had already warned in our budget consultation launch that we were faced with making some very difficult decisions and the settlement unfortunately confirms that position.

"It is deeply regrettable that councils like ours are expected to find tens of millions of pounds of savings at a time when we are facing a huge increase in demand for services to support the most vulnerable young people and adults in our society and many of our other costs also continue to rise."

"The full implications for services will now be reviewed ahead of the council setting its budget in the new year. We will continue to make representations to our MPs and government that in our view the government's new funding formula does not give sufficient weight to factors such as the significance of rural poverty or the additional financial burden of delivering services in a large, sparsely populated area like ours.

"Funding is in effect being diverted away from rural areas over the next three years and we believe a range of financial assumptions have been made which are not realistic for an area with our rural characteristics. The fact that many of these changes have only been presented this week makes the task of assessing important decisions on public services all the more difficult as we must set a budget early in 2026."

The 2026/27 Westmorland and Furness Council budget consultation includes a proposed 4.99% council tax increase, alongside a number of other charging proposals.