SOUTH Somerset will be hit by the worst core spending cuts in the country, after it was revealed the council will have £1.8million less than this past year.

Yeovil Liberal Democrats have hit out at the funding agreement, saying they are ‘disappointed’ to be the most harshly cut local authority in the country, while South Somerset MP Marcus Fysh welcomed the increase in funding for the county council.

The local authority spending deal was announced on Wednesday, and revealed the district will be given £15.9million in core spending power for 2018/19 - compared to £17.7million for the past year.

SSDC is currently receiving £231 per household, but that will be slashed to £207 when the new deal kicks in in April.

This means the district faces a cut of 10.33 per cent.

Cllr Peter Seib, SSDC portfolio holder for finance and legal services, said: “We are the most harshly cut council in the whole country.

“I think money has been taken from district councils and given to county. I am very disappointed that at a district level we have been hit so hard.”

Conservative MPs, including South Somerset’s Marcus Fysh, welcomed settlement highlighting the 3.5 per cent increase in core spending power available to SCC.

Cllr Seib, a Liberal Democrat, added: “We have been given a 10.3 per cent cut in our core spending, and the next lowest is Sedgemoor with nine per cent, so I struggle to see if they have paid any attention to the detail.

“The Somerset local authorities are all being harshly cut. I think what has happened is where we feel pretty hard done by at a district level, Somerset County Council is pretty middle of the range.

“Because we have been expecting this for three years, we aren’t actually cutting any services this year. Despite this news, we will be producing a balanced budget.”

For the coming financial year, 2018/2019, Somerset will have a core spending power of £340.6 million, an increase of £11.4 million.

MP Fysh said: “This is good news for Somerset and other rural areas.

“The drop in spending for the district council is significantly less than the rise at county level, when per dwelling spending by 2020 is compared. It is also important that extra funds have been made available to rural areas to address that imbalance.

“We will keep fighting for more though, through streams like the Housing Infrastructure Fund and the next set of business rate retention pilot schemes.”

Sajid Javid, secretary of state for Housing, Communities and Local Government, said: “We have listened to representations made and delivered on these requests: two years of real terms increases in resources, more freedom and fairness, and greater certainty to plan and secure value for money.”