Surrey County Council has been given the lowest increase in county council funding in England for 2010/11. Surrey will receive ￡1.8 million more than in 2009/10, a 1.5% increase. The government confirmed the settlement in the House of Commons last Thursday.

Dr Andrew Povey, Leader of Surrey County Council, said: “The people of Surrey expect to have a reasonable level of public services for a prosperous, modern society. The county council has ambitious aspirations on their behalf and the government has failed to support them – a 1.5% rise falls way short of the 4% for other counties. 

“Surrey's residents make a net contribution of ￡5.5 billion annually to the Government, or ￡5,100 for every man, woman and child in the county. That is far more than many other parts of the country contribute. This settlement reinforces how unfairly the people of Surrey are treated by the government.

“Money is tight for everyone and nobody likes paying more but with council tax funding more than 80% of our services a small rise in council tax – a maximum of 2.5% – is now inevitable for 2010/11. However, when I was elected leader in June I made value for money one of this council’s core principles and requested Public Value Reviews of all services over the next three years. These will focus on reducing costs and raising performance so that we can be sure we are providing residents with the best and most efficient services possible within the funds available to us.”