York is not getting its fair share of Government cash, MP Hugh Bayley said today.

Speaking before City of York Council's budget meeting tonight, he said unitary authorities face "hopeless" bias.

Councillors will make some of the hardest decisions in the history of the authority tonight as they struggle to plug a £4.7 million budget shortfall with cuts including replacing cooks in elderly people's homes with pre-cooked meals, cutting a £20,000 grant to Wilberforce Home for the Blind and closing the York Story.

A 7.5 per cent increase in council tax bills is expected.

Mr Bayley said: "There are strong arguments for the new unitary authorities, including York, to get a better deal. The funding rules for local authorities, developed under the Tories, are hopelessly biased against new unitary authorities and rural authorities with sparse populations."

Unitary authorities lose out on funding for a range of factors.

But City of York Council's Conservative leader, John Galvin, said: "It seems to me that every time the Labour Government and its MPs come under any form of criticism they always look back and blame the Conservatives."

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