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Gloucestershire is being short-changed says County Council Leader

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Residents are being urged to back a campaign calling on the Government to do more to protect Gloucestershire’s essential local services such as looking after children and young people with disabilities, social care and managing our highways.
Cllr Lisa Spivey, Leader of Gloucestershire County Council, outside Parliament

The county council has launched a petition as part of its Fairer Funding for Gloucestershire campaign, setting out five key areas where it wants the Government to act.

Gloucestershire has been short-changed for years, meaning funding arrangements fail to reflect the true cost of delivering services across a large and predominantly rural county. 

The campaign has cross party backing after the Conservatives, Reform, the Greens and the independents said they would support it.

The petition calls on the Government to:

  1. Give Gloucestershire a fair funding settlement that properly recognises the higher cost of delivering services across a rural county.
  2. End the long-standing injustice in schools and SEND funding. Fund our children properly and write off the full historic deficit.
  3. Invest properly in Gloucestershire’s roads, with enough funding to tackle the existing backlog of £90m and the annual £15 million gap in the maintenance fund to prevent it growing again.
  4. Pay the costs of Local Government Reorganisation and quickly provide clarity on what happens next, rather than saddling Gloucestershire taxpayers with an estimated £22 million bill and leaving local communities and councils in limbo.
  5. Act now on social care, providing immediate meaningful reform and funding that reflects inflation and rising demand, so no-one is left behind.

Cllr Lisa Spivey, Leader of Gloucestershire County Council, said: “For too long, our county has been expected to deliver essential services without receiving the right amount of Government funding.

“This is not about special treatment - it is about fairness. Gloucestershire must have the resources it needs to keep our communities safe, support our vulnerable residents, educate our children and maintain the roads we all use. Without fairer funding, pressure on these services will only grow.

“If we all sign the petition, together we can send a clear and powerful message to Government: Gloucestershire matters, our communities deserve to be heard and our county deserves the funding it needs to thrive for generations to come.”

Cllr Spivey took the fight to Parliament this week, attending an event held by f40, a national group, of which Gloucestershire is a member, which campaigns for more funding for councils receiving some of the lowest education and SEND funding in England.

She said: “Our children deserve better than this. It is not fair that children in other parts of the country get more money for their education than ours do. Our Fairer Funding campaign demands action to rectify this.”

Once we have secured the strongest possible backing, we will take the petition and our five-point funding manifesto directly to 10 Downing Street, giving Gloucestershire a powerful, united voice in calling for fairer funding.

Residents, businesses, community groups and partner organisations are being urged to add their names to the petition and help the council to stand up for Gloucestershire.

Sign the petition at: Fairer Funding for Gloucestershire | Have Your Say Gloucestershire.

Find out more about the Fairer Funding for Gloucestershire campaign at: Fairer Funding for Gloucestershire campaign.