GOVERNMENT claims that it is cutting Waltham Forest Council's budget by 5.2 per cent next year are deceptive and the actual figure is far higher, the authority has said.

When Whitehall announced its funding reductions for local authorities earlier this week it appeared that the council had received a better settlement than other London boroughs such as Newham and Tower Hamlets, which had their budgets slashed by 10 per cent.

When quizzed by the Guardian on Tuesday, the council said it was too early to tell the exact impact of the announcement on its finances.

But now after a detailed analysis of the figures, the council's number-crunchers have concluded the authority is actually facing a cut of 13 per cent next year as a result of the settlement, leaving it £19million worse off.

A council spokesman said the authority's previous estimate of the need for £65million worth of savings over the next four years remained unchanged, but the news is unlikely to bring much cheer to the 600 council staff who fear they could lose their jobs as a result.

In a strongly worded statement, council leader Chris Robbins accused the Government of misleading the public over the true extent of the cuts.

He said the Government's claim of a 5.2 per cent reduction was calculated based only on some of the grants that the council normally receives for its work, and ignored other areas of axed funding.

He said: "The local government finance settlement is a classic case of smoke and mirrors.

"The government are telling people that we’re losing 5.2 per cent, but they’re hiding the truth behind a complex system of grants and different funding streams.

“We’ve taken a very responsible approach to our budget and we’ve already made some really difficult decisions.

"But there is no getting away from the fact that these cuts mean we will have to stop providing some of the vital services that our community rely on.

"At the end of the day it is our residents who will suffer and the Government should have the decency to be straight with people about the true scale of the cuts.”

Last year the authority said it received £123million in formula grants and £26million in area based grants - a total of £149million.

But this year the two types of funding have been combined, with the council receiving a total of £125.9million. While the 'formula' portion of this grant has increased by £2.9million, the area grant has been cut by £21million, leaving the authority worse off overall.

The 13 per cent figure is based on this along with both increases and reductions in other types of smaller grants, a council spokesman said.

A Government spokesman said the published figures did represent total council funding and that the method of its calculation was supported by the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents all councils in England.

In a statement, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles said: "By adopting an intelligent and fair approach to the way funding is allocated we have been able to ensure those parts of the country that are most reliant on central funding continue to get the lion's share of the taxpayers' money that is available.

"Funding fairness underpins this settlement."

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