Unitary launches legal bid over Government decision to pull rural services delivery grant

North Yorkshire Council has issued a pre-action protocol letter over the Government's decision to rescind the rural services delivery grant worth millions, a move the unitary authority had previously dubbed "Rayner's rural robbery".

Speaking at an executive council meeting on Tuesday (5 February), Barry Khan, assistant chief executive, confirmed the legal action, stating: "A letter before action was sent challenging the government in regards to their proposals prior to them making the decision."

Khan went on to outline the grounds of challenge: "It was basically on three grounds, one was on the way the Government did the consultation, the second was on rationality and thirdly with regards to considering the public sector equality duty and how that affects our individuals - our people with protected characteristics in rural areas."

The council's move follows previous comments from deputy leader Cllr Gareth Dadd, who described the Government's decision as an "ideologically driven attack" and called the cancellation "Rayner's rural robbery".

The removal of the grant, which had been in place since 2013/14, resulted in a loss of £14.3 million for the council.

The council has previously said it could be £6m worse off per year as a result of losing the grant.

In response to the criticism last month, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government stated: "We are injecting £69 billion of funding into council budgets across England to help them drive forward the government's Plan for Change, including a £23 million increase for North Yorkshire Council."

The Ministry has been approached for comment on the pre-action protocol.

Adam Carey