Working Together for a Fairer Deal for Dudley

The authority recently received its provisional settlement from central government, which shows that Dudley’s Core Spending Power (CSP) increase over the three-year period is significantly below the national, metropolitan and West Midlands averages.

The council’s leader, Councillor Patrick Harley has written to the borough’s MPs to share his concerns about the potential impact of this disparity on the authority’s ability to sustain core services – including children’s services, adult social care, housing and neighbourhoods.

Dudley’s three-year CSP increase is 11.7% (£44.0m) compared with 15.3% nationally, 19.1% for metropolitan authorities, and 25.8% across the West Midlands. This represents a shortfall of £13.5m against the national average, £27.8m against metropolitan authorities, and £53.0m against the West Midlands average.

The leader has asked for the MPs support with joint lobbying and parliamentary engagement to ensure every opportunity is being taken for the benefit of the borough.

Councillor Patrick Harley, leader of Dudley Council said:

“We’ve been short-changed with this provisional settlement and fare worse than our like for like authorities.

“We’ve been working really hard to balance our finances and build our reserves without any additional hand-outs. But based on current projections, we could still end up with a financial gap of £27.9m by 2030/31. This could directly impact services our residents rely on. 

“This is still a provisional settlement, there is still time for representation to be made to increase our settlement which is why I’ve asked my political colleagues to work with us to make sure we get the very best deal for Dudley. It’s not about politics, but about people and I’m confident that working together we can bring about real change.”