Fair Share for Cornwall

Back in July 2010 Cornwall Council passed a motion regarding seeking an end to the end of underfunding for Cornwall.  The issue was taken up with the Coalition Government and the six Cornish MPs; we await the outcome of their deliberations which should be reflected in a re-distribution of funding starting in financial year 2013/14 when the current arrangements are to be replaced.  With a correction to England's funding allocation, we can then expect a suitable increase in our distribution to reflect our population dynamics which, in financial requirements, place us in need of funding over and above that implied by a simple pro-rata allocation.

The available evidence from England's funding (allowing for the current funding advantages enjoyed by Scotland by virtue of the Barnett formula devised in the 1970's) when taken in context with, for examples, the funding for Cornwall's schools and NHS strongly points towards a existing substantial disadvantage for Cornwall.  The Barnett formula sets out that out of every £1 of Government funding, 85p goes to England, 10p to Scotland and 5p to Wales. 

According to the Office for National Statistics (source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=6)  the UK population in mid-2009 was 61.8 million.  The Scottish population is 5.2 million (source: http://www.scotland.org/facts/population/) and Northern Ireland's population is 1.8 million (source: http://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/default.asp10.htm).  The population of Wales is 3.0 million (source: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/headlines/population2010/101027/?lang=en).

So based on the above the actual and correct distributions of spending should be:

		Population	Percentage of Population	Barnett formula	Correct formula
	England	51.8m	86.3%	85p	86.3p
	Scotland	5.2m	8.7%	10.0p	8.7p
	Wales	3.0m	5.0%	5.0p	5.0p
	Total	60.0m	100.0%	100p	100p

.