SOUTH Oxfordshire District Council has proposed a merger with Vale of White Horse council to help them financially after years of government cuts.

South Oxfordshire's Liberal Democrat leader Sue Cooper sent a letter on December 24 to the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government highlighting the benefits of merging the two authorities.

Ms Cooper proposed the district councils merge to create one body with the same total number of district councillors suggesting that because of their combined geography it would become more financially resilient.

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On Thursday, December 19, South Oxfordshire had passed the motion asking officers to bring forward proposals for the council to consider whether it should have a formal merger.

It is not the first time a merger between the district councils has been suggested: in 2016 the two authorities merged much of their management.

However, Ms Cooper has now proposed a complete formal merger.

In the letter to secretary of state Robert Jenrick she said: “Our financial situation is poor, following years of holding down our council tax to levels well below the national average and even further below that of other neighbouring districts (with the exception of the Vale which also has severe but different funding problems from ours).”

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She continued: “I am hoping that we shall have all-member briefings in the new year to explain the financial situation following the removal of government grant and drastic reduction of the New Homes Bonus on which we have been over-reliant in recent years."

Ms Cooper suggested that financial pressures had come from the government restrictions on increasing council tax by more than 1.99 per cent, implying the £5-a-year increase would not significantly help the council.

Ms Cooper said: “We are an extremely efficient and low-spending council when compared with our peers. It is not our spending or our number of staff, both of which are comparatively very low, but the means by which they have been funded which are problematic. Funding from non-sustainable sources is risky and we are about to pay the price.”

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She continued: “Another financial pressure we face is that the five councils outsourcing contract with Capita has not delivered all of the savings that we were promised."

Ms Cooper received a letter from the minister which pointed out that the New Homes Bonus is a flexible fund which local communities can spend as they see fit.

Ms Cooper responded by saying that government grants to local authorities had been cut by nearly 50 per cent in the past ten years, and warned that if overall government funding for South Oxfordshire continued to fall and the council was unable to raise its tax, there would be an even larger gap between its expenditure and income.