HEALTH GRANTS IN ENGLAND

Southland Times, Issue 23128, 19 February 1937, Page 5

HEALTH GRANTS IN ENGLAND

NEW FORMULA FOR ALLOCATIONS MORE AID FOR POORER DISTRICTS (British Official Wireless) (Received February 18, 7 p.m.) RUGBY, February 17. A White Paper has been published containing proposals which have emerged from expert investigation of the working of the formula under which the annual Exchequer grant of £44,000,000 is distributed among local authorities in England and Wales, towards provision of health facilities. The total of the grant is to be increased to about £49,000,000 and, under a revised formula which gives special weight to the amount of local unemployment and such factors as sparse population, a larger share of the increased grant will be allocated to the poorer areas where the need for social services is usually greatest, while they are least able to pay for them. The revision of the previous “block front” system was undertaken on account of the great inequalities of rates prevailing in different localities, attributable to the incidence of unemployment and other causes, and frequently resulting in the discouragement of industry in just those areas where its recovery was most important. Among the striking examples in the White Paper of the affects of redistribution is the estimated gain of £51,000 yearly to Merthyr Tydfil, a derelict mining village in South Wales, representing the equivalent of 5/- in the £ on local rates. Durham, Glamorgan and Monmouth between them will gain something like £650,000 yearly. In London, Bermondsey, a poor borough, will gain the equivalent of more than 1/- in its rate.