FUNDING cuts have hit Bradford almost 15 times harder than wealthy parts of the South, new analysis shows – despite the city facing much higher care bills.

The study highlights the areas where people suffer most from poor physical and mental health, disability and early death, imposing huge extra costs on local councils.

Bradford is the 37th worst-hit of 325 authorities for "health deprivation and disability", according to the House of Commons library analysis.

And, since 2010, it has lost £213.04 of its overall ‘spending power’ for every resident, according to a separate study by finance chiefs at Newcastle City Council.

Yet, the average loss in the five areas with the fewest sick and disabled people, and, therefore, much lower care costs, is calculated at just £15.41 per head – approaching 15 times less.

Incredibly, spending power has actually risen at one authority, Elmbridge, in Surrey - up £8.14 per head - while it has plummeted in Bradford, down £213.04.

The gulf is seen as crucial because social care is the biggest financial burden for councils - gobbling up one third of Bradford’s budget - with responsibility for public health now added.

Recently, the charity Age UK warned that older people have been left “high and dry” by council cutbacks to help with washing and dressing, to day care places and meals on wheels services.

Councillor Amir Hussain, Bradford’s executive member for health and social care, said that was not the case in the city, thanks to back office cuts and efficiencies.

But he warned: “We are reaching the point where, if these cuts continue, we will have no option but to look at what services we can no longer provide.

“This analysis endorses what I, and other Bradford councillors, have been saying for many years.”

But Kris Hopkins, the Keighley MP and local government minister, said “We have been fair to all parts of the country, rural and urban, shire and city, north and south, with deprived areas continuing to receive the highest government grants.”

Labour has promised a new “fairer formula” for distributing local authority grants, but has yet to give details, or say when this would be introduced.

The ‘spending power’ measure bundles together grants, council tax, business rates and the New Homes Bonus, but is widely criticised for disguising the true scale of the pain.

Newcastle’s finance department calculated the changes since the 2010 general election, after the Government refused to produce official figures.