“Hull needs more money than East Riding”

Here’s an example from the Hull Daily Mail of how local authorities use deprivation statistics to challenge funding decisions. Hull’s spending power per head of population was reduced by 24.9% in 2014 and council leader Stephen Brady points out the area has higher levels of deprivation than rural areas which were facing relatively much smaller budget cuts. He contrasts budget reductions in Hull of £228 per head with “a cut of just £82 in the East Riding”. On the other hand Conservative MP Graham Stuart argues that current funding levels unfairly favour urban areas.

Both types of area usually face different issues in terms of deprivation, but urban areas tend to be better represented on the IMD as it focuses on the sort of concentrated small area deprivation that is prevalent in the largest English cities.