English 'will resent' Scots council tax freeze

Graham Stringer, MP for Manchester Blackley, said constituents in English regions will have "their noses rubbed" by the policy and questioned why some areas of Scotland should receive more funding than those south of the Border.

On Wednesday Mr Stringer will raise the thorny issue of the budget allocation under the Barnett formula in a Westminster debate.

Yesterday he told The Scotsman his constituents, irritated by free care for the elderly, scrapping prescription charges and graduate endowment, will query why money allocated from Westminster should be funding these Scotland-only policies.

He said: "I don't think it is particularly fair when Glasgow, which is a comparable city to Manchester, gets public expenditure at a far higher rate than other English cities.

"These things are rubbing people's noses in the English regions. Why should council tax be frozen in Scotland when in Manchester, because we got a low settlement of just 0.9 per cent more than last year, we are facing a 5-10 per cent council tax rise?"

However, Manchester city residents enjoy lower levels of council tax, a Band D property paying 1,235.53 for 2007/8 compared with 1,578.85 in Glasgow.

Mr Stringer, a former union shop steward and council leader, stressed he was "not anti-Scottish" and was a committed unionist who just wanted to see "fair" settlements for the English regions.

"Most of my constituents would not know what the Barnett formula was, but they know its effect," he said.

"They stop me on the street and in the supermarket and ask 'why am I having to pay for my child's university fees when in Scotland they're free?'"

The problem with the Barnett formula was that it did not reflect social need, he added.

Mr Stringer's call for a debate on Barnett is backed by MPs in London and in the North.

An ad hoc committee in the Lords is to be set up to review the formula - which even its creator, Joel Barnett, now a Labour peer, has insisted is flawed and was only meant to be temporary.

A fellow Labour MP has warned that the funding arguments could play into the hands of the Conservatives and the SNP, who are keen to highlight the deception that Scotland receives around 1,500 funding per head more than other parts of the UK.

Ann McKechin, the Labour MP for Glasgow North, said she acknowledged Mr Stringer's right to hold a debate but said: "You have to be careful how you phrase that debate.

"I know he is a committed unionist and he wants to get the best possible settlement for his constituents but let's not play into the hands of our opponents.

"It shouldn't be about 'you get this therefore we miss out'."

Ms McKechin added she had not yet heard any convincing alternatives to the Barnett formula which at least acknowledged the difficulties and expense in providing services for sparsely populated parts of the country.

GLASGOW

POPULATION: 578,790

LIFE EXPECTANCY: 70.5 years for men; 77 for women.

HOUSEHOLDS LIVING ON 60 PER CENT OF MEAN INCOME BEFORE HOUSING COSTS: 41 per cent

HOUSEHOLDS WITH DEPENDENT CHILDREN WHERE NO ADULT IS WORKING: 36 per cent

ECONOMIC DECLINE: Textiles and steel dominated the city's economy during the Industrial Revolution. The opening of the Monkland Canal in 1791 facilitated access to the iron ore and coal mines in Lanarkshire. The city built most of the world's locomotives and ships by the end of the 19th century. But the manufacturing industry declined by the 1960s in the face of competition from Japan and Germany and due to under-investment at home.

MANCHESTER

POPULATION: 452,000

LIFE EXPECTANCY: 73.9 years for men; 79 years for women.

HOUSEHOLDS LIVING ON 60 PER CENT OF MEAN INCOME BEFORE HOUSING COSTS: 22.5 per cent

HOUSEHOULDS WITH DEPENDENT CHILDREN WHERE NO ADULT IS WORKING: 10.1 per cent

ECONOMIC DECLINE: Manchester was the world's centre of cotton production during the Industrial Revolution and by 1913, 65 per cent of the world's cotton was processed in the area. But the industry's access to export markets was disrupted during the First World War and Manchester suffered greatly throughout the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s.