Allen Brett, Leader of the Council says: Where Rochdale leads...

Allen Brett, Leader of the Council

​Along with my Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) colleagues I wrote to local government minister James Brokenshire MP last week appealing for common-sense when it comes to divvying up how much grant money local authorities can expect, says Allen Brett, Leader of the Council.

To be blunt, whatever formula is used to calculate how much government grant councils receive needs ripping up and re-writing. The current funding formula is heavily stacked against large, northern, urban areas such as Rochdale in favour of leafy, rural, southern communities.

A recent statistic said that cities have shouldered almost 75 per cent (three quarters) of local government cuts, with northern towns and cities being hit with an average of 20 per cent reduction in budgets.

But to quote an ancient proverb, ‘necessity is the mother of all invention’.

In other words councils such as ours have been forced to look at new and inventive ways of delivering services, while coping with massive budget cuts.

That was evident once again recently, when the government issued its 10-year plan for the NHS, including ideas for a more efficient service, which really means providing services at reduced costs.

As my cabinet colleague Councillor Iftikhar Ahmed recently pointed out, this plan is another missed opportunity to address the adult and social care funding crisis.

It should have included long-awaited credible ideas on how to tackle the national £3.6bn funding gap. As is the Rochdale way, rather than waiting for ideas we developed our own.

A pioneering service that provides dedicated care and support for people in their own home is one example. With this idea, much-needed hospital beds are freed up by ensuring people are cared for in a place of their choice.

Don't get me wrong, the 10-year plan does include many good things, like funding mental health services; this is obviously to be welcomed.

But I still think that it was a missed opportunity.

Call me an old cynic, but it seems as if the government is quite prepared to kick the funding gap issue down the road, failing to recognise the extent of the problem and instead leave it up to us to come up with the details.

I'm just grateful that as the birthplace of the Cooperative movement, it's in our DNA to continually strive to come up with inventive and pioneering ideas for the people of Rochdale.