Westminster is London's most heavily subsidised council, official figures reveal

12.24.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 28th May 2009

Westminster's Council Tax bills benefit from heavy central subsidies

Conservative-run Westminster is, this year, the capital's most heavily subsidised council, with Westminster receiving 79p from central government for every £1 it needs to raise in taxes. If any of London's LibDem councils received the same subsidy they would not be charging anything in Council Tax!

Every council spends more than it receives in fees and charges, and Westminster is no different. The gap is made up by taxes, with some coming from central government and the rest paid through local Council Tax bills.

The gap in Westminster's finances this year is £227m - a far bigger funding shortfall than any of London's three LibDem-run councils. This £227m is how much it needs to raise either from central government or local taxpayers. Thanks to the mammoth £179m subsidy from Whitehall however it only needs to raise 21 per cent of that through local Council Tax bills.

This is the heaviest subsidy of any London borough. In fact, the central subsidies paid to London's three LibDem-run councils - Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames, and Sutton - are less, added together, than what's paid to Westminster alone.

Commenting, LibDem parliamentary candidate for Westminster North Mark Blackburn said, "We hear a lot of guff from Westminster Tories about how brilliant they are with money. The fact that they receive more in central subsidies than all three LibDem-run London councils put together does show however that it's not as simple as their propaganda suggests.

"In fact, if any of London's three LibDem councils received the same amount of fat central government subsidy as Westminster they could issue Council Tax bills for £0!"