Brown accused of diverting rural money to 'bribe urban voters in Labour heartlands'

Statistics show that vast sums have been diverted from Tory-leaning country shires to towns and cities since Labour came to power in 1997.

Councils in London now receive twice as much per head as population from the Government than their rural counterparts, according to figures from the House of Commons Library.

More money has been spent on urban areas, despite growing evidence that councils in rural areas are struggling to maintain their services.

It has left Gordon Brown open to criticism that his party is trying to bribe voters ahead of the next general election.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is accused of 'bribing voters in Labour headlands'

In 1997 average funding for London authorities was £1,256 per person, £951 in metropolitan boroughs and £727 in the shire counties.

The funding gap per head of the population between Londoners and rural dwellers was £529 - meaning a country dweller received 57 per cent of the money spent on the average Londoner.

Now Londoners receive an average of £2,743 per person, £1,969 for metropolitan boroughs and those living in the shires £1,413. It means that a rural resident now receives 51 per cent of the money spent on somebody living in the capital.

The research is based statistics provided by the Commons Library to Conservative MP Phillip Dunne, who said yesterday: 'Central government grants of all kinds to councils and other public bodies have increased far faster in cities and big towns than they have in country areas.

'We have witnessed a deliberate policy of switching taxpayers' money from the country to the city.

'It has been done in secret, with no announcement, no public debate, no explanation and no justification.'

Local authorities depend on central government for more than 75 per cent of their income.

Switching money from rural areas has also put pressure on councils with less resources to put up council tax.

In the past 11 years the 20 lowest council tax increases were in traditional Labour local authorities.

The 17 highest council tax increases were in Conservative or Liberal Democrat areas.

Council tax bills in the traditional Labour heartland of Manchester have gone up by 42 per cent in 11 years. But in South Shropshire, the rise is 133 per cent over the same period. One in 13 small primary schools in South Shropshire have already closed and hundreds more are believed to be under threat.

22 community hospitals have closed down and more than 50 of the remaining 350 are also under threat.

The figures also reveal that between 1997 and 2005 384 police stations closed in shire areas compared with 81 in the metropolitan boroughs.

Mr Dunne added: "No wonder that the biggest increases in violent crime are to be found in the countryside, up 119 per cent since 1998 compared with a national average increase of 106 per cent.

"And not for long can country folk drown their sorrows in the village pub. Last year, more than 1,400 closed under the impact of higher taxes and the smoking ban.

"Is it some political equivalent of an act of God? Is there some iron law that says in modern societies like Britain, services must inevitably decline outside the big towns and cities?

"One of the first acts of an incoming Conservative government must be to restore a fair balance between town and country."