Uncertainty over how much government funding will be received in parts of Cambridgeshire has raised concerns amongst councillors. 

Cllr Chris Boden, leader of Fenland District Council [FDC], said the amount of government grants coming into local authorities is in “fits and starts”, which is making budgeting harder to do. 

Speaking at a FDC meeting in February, Cllr Boden said the council did not know “possibly to the tune of hundreds of thousands, certainly tens of thousands, how much money we’ll receive for 2022-23, let alone next year”. 

Similar concerns have also been raised at Peterborough City Council. 

Cllr Andy Coles listed “uncertainty around future government funding” as a financial risk when discussing its budget and medium-term financial strategy [MTFS]. 

The council’s MTFS states that there is “uncertainty for the future in relation to funding levels... making it difficult to plan with certainty in the long-term". 

It added that core government grants increase “much slower than demand rates and inflation”. 

READ MORE: Fenland: Almost £900k funding agreed towards housing refugees

Back in Fenland, Cllr Boden said it is unclear how much money FDC will receive from central government. 

“From one year to the next, even from one month to the next, we don’t know how much money we’re going to get,” he said. 

“It comes in fits and starts; it comes with relatively short notice and it can be really, really difficult to budget a year in advance.” 

At a FDC cabinet meeting last month, councillors agreed to £873,932 from the government to help house refugees in Fenland. 

The money from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will be used to buy nine properties to house refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan in Fenland in the short-term.   

READ MORE: Fenland households to see two per cent cut in council tax

Cllr Boden had told councillors that government funding had become “less and less predictable over the years. 

“It’s now very difficult indeed for us to properly budget the amount of money we’re going to receive from central government in the forthcoming year.” 

Cllr Boden added: “We don’t even know how much money we’ll receive in the current financial year, and we’ve only got six weeks left, so it does make it extremely difficult.”