A BRADFORD MP has accused the Government of a “callous” disregard for local councils amid uncertainty over their funding in future.

Imran Hussain, Labour MP for Bradford East, said the Government was “leaving councils guessing” over how they would be funded from 2020 onwards.

His comments came as a scrutiny committee at Bradford Council heard the authority was having serious problems implementing cuts to this year’s budget and is already facing a multi-million pound overspend.

The Government had originally been planning to scrap its Revenue Support Grant, the main Government grant for local authorities, from 2020 and instead allow councils to keep all the business rates they collect - a plan which would have left low-rates areas like Bradford worse off.

But this plan was plunged into doubt when it was left out of the Queen’s Speech.

Mr Hussain, the former deputy leader of Bradford Council and still a councillor, said councils were now in the dark about what would happen, and called on the Government to rule out plans “which would leave local authorities in poorer areas worse off”.

He said: “To leave councils waiting up to another two years for a decision on their future funding arrangements, and potentially leaving them with just a year to prepare, is callous behaviour by the Government, and it is dangerous for local authorities such as Bradford who have already cut their services to the bone to save money, but who will potentially have to make even deeper cuts because of funding changes.”

Mr Hussain has criticised the Government in recent exchanges with ministers in Parliament, in which Local Government Minister Marcus Jones said they were committed to giving local authorities greater control over the money they raise and “will open a conversation with local government over the next few months about the best way to achieve this”.

The Local Government Association has called on the Government to continue with plans to allow councils to keep all their business rates, but to also find a fairer way of distributing this cash across the country.

Bosses at Bradford Council say their real-terms budget is being halved between 2010 and 2020 and have made controversial cuts to a host of services, from libraries to social care.

At a scrutiny meeting on Wednesday, councillors heard how this year’s cuts package, finalised in February, was already coming unstuck.

Its 2017/18 budget is currently projected to be £10.5m overspent, mainly due to social care pressures.

Around £25m of planned cuts are in danger of not being realised, which has partly been offset by some extra money and savings elsewhere.