A BETTER-than-expected financial settlement has left a council on a more secure footing, councillors heard.

Hyndburn Council had been expecting to lose £1.5 million in revenue support grant from the Government for 2020-21.

But cabinet member for resources, Cllr Joyce Plummer, told fellow senior councillors they would now receive the same funding as the current financial year.

Cllr Plummer said: “The years of finding significant reductions in expenditure every year could be behind us.”

Leader of the council, Cllr Miles Parkinson, said: “From this we can take that next year will be pretty straight forward for the council in terms of what it was perceived it could be.

“At the moment, we have clarity but that could change depending on the upcoming election. What we can say is we don’t have the upheaval we were expecting and we can see growth.

“We all want the income to grow and we all aspire to help boost employment, housing and good public services but we have had to deal with austerity for more than a decade.”

Conservative group leader Cllr Tony Dobson added: “I have to welcome the change of Government stance.

“This council has made the savings needed but there is a recognition that things have been squeezed as much as they can. I know we are not out of the woods but let’s hope this is the start of a new way of financing local government.”

But Cllr Plummer added: “The delay is expected to ensure the council continues to receive Revenue Support Grant in 2020/21 of £1.5m that it would otherwise have lost.

“However beyond this single item of good news around the Revenue Support Grant, in terms of forecasting our financial position over the next three years, all other significant figures are volatile and subject to change as they can be significantly influenced by the economic outlook and Government policy, all of which are unclear at the moment and could remain in this state for 12 months or more.”