Rural areas of Suffolk get less government cash than more built-up parts of the country, meaning local authorities rely on council tax takings to balance the books, new figures have revealed.

Data from the Rural Services Network found parts of Suffolk get less than half the government funding per head compared to the amount for people living in cities.

This year, people living in Babergh received just £307 of government funding per head. In Southend-on-Sea people got £370. While in Manchester, residents got £642. And in Westminster, £692.

Figures for the rest of the county are similar.

Andrew Stringer, leader of the opposition Green, Liberal Democrat and Independent group at Suffolk County Council, said the lack of government cash was holding the county back.

"It cannot be right that 100 miles away from where I'm sitting you have a city where you can readily jump on a bus and use a debit card to travel anywhere you want on a joined-up basis yet, in the village where I'm sitting here now there are no longer any buses," he said.

"There's a really big inequality here in terms of quality and service.

"Rural communities have survived on a lot less than heavily urban ones for decades. It means we're quite efficient with the money we do get, but it does mean we're held back.

"We could thrive even more than we are if we were given sufficient funding"

Nationally, the statistics show that this year mostly rural parts of the country get £303 of government funding per head, while most urban areas get £424 – leaving a 40% shortfall.

This shortfall is in part made up by charging rural residents more council tax. This year residents paid an average of £104 more council tax than people in more urban areas.

East Anglian Daily Times: Professor Janet Dwyer from the University of GloucestershireProfessor Janet Dwyer from the University of Gloucestershire (Image: University of Gloucestershire)

Janet Dwyer, professor of rural policy at the University of Gloucestershire, said: "Local authorities with large rural hinterlands lose out in respect of service provision from the central government taxation for running local services for people.

"The system is biased against rural and you need to accept that certain things cost more in rural areas to get the same level of provisions and that needs to be built into the calculations."

A spokesman for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities said: “We have provided specific support for rural areas worth £85 million in the latest local government settlement, recognising that there are often extra costs in the countryside.

“The Government is committed to ensuring that funding allocations for councils are based on an up-to-date assessment of their needs and resources.”