ONLY one council in England has had a bigger reduction in government funding in the last five years than Hampshire County Council, new data has shown.

The amount of money given to the council has been by more than £150 million since 2015 forcing it to make £80 million in savings this year alone.

Councillor Keith Mans, its leader who has recently resigned, warned there were “serious issues with local government finance” that needed to be addressed.

READ MORE: Hampshire County Council leader Keith Mans steps down

Funding reduced by 38 per cent in Portsmouth over the same period and by almost 48 per cent in each of Gosport and Havant.

While Portsmouth City Council is forecasting it will see an end to 12 years’ of cuts in 2023, Hampshire County Council budget papers show it will have a ‘staggering’ £237m deficit by 2025.

This comes days after the publication of the government’s Levelling Up White Paper which pledges to ‘transform the UK by spreading opportunity and prosperity to all parts of it’ but included no new funding announcements.

Think tank Institute for Public Policy Research North said the lack of financial support for local authorities was ‘the elephant in the room’ in the document.

SEE ALSO: Basingstoke and Deane council leader Ken Rhatigan resigns

"Although many of the ambitions set out by government this week are a step in the right direction, none of them will be achieved without an acknowledgement that austerity has failed, and action taken to reverse it," senior research fellow Jonathan Webb said.

"The government should put its money where its mouth is, immediately."

The Department for Levelling Up did not respond to requests for comment.

County council director of corporate operations Rob Carr said the picture was ‘quite bleak’ with declining funding coming at a time of increasing social care pressures and inflation.

Cllr Mans said: “The government has to think carefully to ensure our services don’t just get flat funding when demand is going up.

“I agree that there does need to be a reset in local government.”

West Sussex County Council was the only local authority in England to have seen a bigger percentage decline in government funding while the Isles of Scilly saw the smallest decrease.

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