OH dear.

I seem to have upset some of the good folk at Dudley Council with my comments about the funding Dudley gets from the council.

You be the judge. The facts are as follows: Councils in England will receive an £8.97bn boost in funding over the next three years, including £2.7bn next year (2008/09).

Dudley Council is a big winner with spending up by £5.8 million next year.

That means government support for services in Dudley will increase by 5.2% next year, which will be well over the rate of inflation. Support will increase by 3.5% the year after, and 3% the year after that. Next year's 5.2% boost is well above the national average of 4% and is the second highest in the region.

The increase for the year after is also the second highest in the West Midlands and the increase for 2010/11 is the highest.

The current settlement is the 11th consecutive increase under the Labour Government compared to a 7% real terms cut under the last four years of the Tory Government.

I am always the first to say that Dudley needs more investment and I will of course continue to work hard all year round to make sure that's what we get, however it would be churlish not to recognise that these are big increases.

That is why I think that these increases mean that there continues to be no excuses for excessive council tax increases here in Dudley.

This year the government has also announced spending settlements for three years for the first time and radically cut down the performance framework so councils now have greater flexibility to budget, plan ahead and make their own decisions about spending priorities.

That should make life easier for the council, but they are also making major cuts, a subject we'll return to in future blogs - even though inflation is running at around 2.5% and the council is getting an increase of 5.2%.