Bradford Council has been stripped of more than £7 million in funding as part of Government cuts to help reduce the nation’s debt.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has ordered the authority to hand back £7.265m from this year’s budget. The figure is expected to increase further in the coming weeks as less than half the cash to be saved from local government has been identified so far.

Council chiefs had been allocated £740.859 million for 2010/11 which is now being reduced by one per cent to £733.594 million through a cut in area-based grants which mostly provide extra cash for more deprived areas.

More than £3.8 million of the money being axed in the city was ring-fenced for specific education projects which can include teaching standards, improving attendance and tackling teenage pregnancies.

Other cuts include £1.5m to encourage business growth in the area and £1.4m of cuts from the working neighbourhood fund, which allows councils and communities to help get people back into work.

In addition £250,000 is to go from the administration of a programme which helps people to live independently and a further £200,000 is being cut from tackling extremism and improving cohesion.

Whitehall officials insist it does not mean these schemes will automatically be scrapped but the individual council will instead have to decide what its priorities are.

Council leader Ian Greenwood, who heads the Labour group, said: “We are concerned about the cuts as it makes it very difficult to do a proper budget when you are half way through a year.

“We have not had the opportunity to properly analyse the situation. I am particularly concerned with the £3.8m cut in the education budget as education is a core priority for the Labour group. It will affect delivery, and this is even worse at a time when the education service in Bradford is changing its arrangements."

Conservative group leader Councillor Anne Hawkesworth said: “This news hardly comes as a shock after the massive damage done to our economy by the last Labour Government. It is also clear that further significant cuts will have to be made well into the future as the new Government seeks to reduce the dire budget deficit bequeathed by Gordon Brown."

Liberal Democrat group leader Councillor Jeanette Sunderland added: “It’s clear from the note left by the last Treasury Secretary, Liam Byrne, to his successor that there is no money left but the Council has been working to deal with the huge deficit left by the outgoing Labour Government.

“Everybody in local government knew that we were going to have to find a least £6billion or £7billion nationally this year – so it’s not unexpected that Bradford has to make its contribution."

The areas where cuts will be

A total of nearly £7.3 million in cuts is being forced on Bradford Council by the Government through reductions in the area-based grants that the authority was set to receive.

This was expected to be £69.5m in total for this year, but has been slashed across seven different sections. These are:

  • Department for Education: A reduction of £3.8m in money that was ring-fenced for specific education projects which can include improving teaching standards and attendance as well as measures to tackle teenage pregnancies.
  • Local Enterprise Growth Initiative: A drop of £1.5m in a scheme that aims to boost the productivity and economic potential of the most deprived areas, through enterprise and investment.
  • Working Neighbourhood Fund: A cut of £1.4m in funding which focuses on the most deprived areas and supports communities in efforts to tackle unemployment. WNF funding is currently spent on 38 schemes in the district and Bradford had expected to receive a total of £40m up to March 2011 when the scheme ends.
  • Preventing extremism: A drop of £183,000 in funding which is aimed at stopping people become terrorists or supporting violent extremism. It is a strand of the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy.
  • Supporting People administration: A reduction of £250,000 from the administration of a programme which helps people to live independent lives in their own homes.
  • Home Office total: A cut of £64,000 in grants which may include a contribution to the safer stronger communities agenda.
  • Cohesion: A drop of £48,000 to improve cohesion.