The Barnett Formula Hurts The North East - It Needs To Be Reviewed Urgently

The Barnett Formula isn't working. It urgently needs to be reviewed. In the words of the Chairman of a House of Lords Committee into the formula, "it is arbitrary and unfair and cannot continue indefinetely." What started off as a short term fix in 1978 has now run its course.

It is only right that any such formula must be needs based. The Barnett Formula blatantly isn't. Although information about funding has been clouded by the Government, we know that the North East receives £8,156 per head and has a lower GDP per capita than Scotland, which receives £9,032 per head from the formula.

Clearly, we must have a needs based solution to the problem. As the Lords Committee said, "public spending per head of population should be allocated... on the basis of relative need." That is not the case at the moment. This is yet another example of the Government letting down the North East and taking our votes for granted.

It is just a shame that the North Eastern Labour MPs have not seen fit to stand up for the region they represent. That is why Parliament needs people like me from the North East - passionate voices independent of the Labour Party machine that has let down the North East for much too long.