Rural council leaders have accused the government of “waging war on the countryside” after analysis showed shire and vale authorities in England are set to lose £61mn over three years under the new local government funding formula, while urban councils gain an additional £2.9bn.
The figures, from an analysis of Office for National Statistics data reported by The Telegraph on 23 October, put fresh numbers on a long-running dispute over how ministers assess the cost of delivering services across sparsely populated areas. According to the County Councils Network, government funding covers just 2p of every £1 of new costs for county and rural unitary councils, against 42p for metropolitan boroughs.
Buckinghamshire Council faces a £44.5mn cut over three years, Westmorland and Furness Council a £32mn reduction and West Berkshire Council a £22mn shortfall, according to the reporting. West Berkshire’s share of retained business rates is set to fall from 30% to 17%.
Jeff Brooks, the Liberal Democrat leader of West Berkshire Council, said: “We have lots of villages and they could die because of the lack of services available to them.” Steve Broadbent, the Conservative leader of Buckinghamshire Council, warned residents could be left leading “much more isolated lives”, while South Hams Council leader Dan Thomas described the changes as a “postcode tax”.
The government maintains that funding should follow need. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged “good growth in every postcode”.
Independent analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, published when the settlement was confirmed in December 2025, found that 70% of shire district councils face real-terms funding falls between 2025–26 and 2028–29, compared with 6% of metropolitan districts. Core funding for the most deprived tenth of areas rises by 15.4% in real terms, against 0.8% for the least deprived tenth.
In January, a County Councils Network survey found eight in ten member councils were likely to cut bin collections and recycling services, seven in ten libraries and leisure centres, and six in ten bus subsidies.
For rural communities, the outcome will be measured in bus routes, libraries and the frequency of bin collections in places where a single lost service can mean a round trip of many miles.
Sources: London Loves Business, 24 October 2026 · Brit Brief, 23 October 2026 · Institute for Fiscal Studies · County Councils Network
