Dear Sir,

County Councillor Chris Booton's recent letter, "Surrey could get extra funding" is as optimistic as his claim that the "new formula could benefit Surrey". We all know if the outcome range is +£27m to-£66m for Surrey that under this Government we must expect the number to begin with a minus sign.

However the debate over grant distribution formula is accompanied by a quite disgraceful proposal in the draft Local Government Bill. Central government proposes to "redistribute" funds local councils receive, and have received in the past, on the sale of housing stock. It is a retrospective tax on well managed, debt free councils like Reigate and Banstead and all local Council taxpayers. It is virtually theft as well as being an awful example of central government trampling all over local government.

There is nothing wrong with the Government wishing to help economic and socially deprived areas, however this should be done via general taxation, not arbitrary asset confiscation which punishes fiscal responsibility. What's the point of local Councillors and their officers working really hard to make their expenditure efficient, if the results of that work are just stolen by Central government ministers.

The spiralling cost of living in the region has made recruiting in the public sector a nightmare and key services will be threatened. Surrey MPs have repeatedly told Government Ministers of the public service crisis in Surrey. Any attempt to remove cash from well run local councils for “redistribution” will make this worse and should be seen as what it is, a further tax on the hard working people in the south east, who already bear a wholly disproportionate part of the national tax burden.

We all need to oppose this, people, councillors and MPs, regardless of Party. There are some fundamental issues of local democracy at stake here, quite apart from a lot of our money.

Yours etc

Crispin Blunt MP

House of Commons