The Government's axing of the grant for local welfare support is a ‘fundamental mistake', the Conservative chairman of the County Councils Network (CCN) has said.

Speaking after calls to keep the local welfare provision grant were ignored in the Budget, Cllr David Hodge said CCN was ‘very disappointed'.

Cllr Hodge said CCN was open to funding for the grant being reduced as long as this happened slowly over a number of years but claimed that the Government had not been consulting.

A CCN spokesman commented: ‘CCN considers that any change to the grant should only be considered in the light of full evaluation of the consequences and in a planned and longer-term timescale as the economy improves.'