Councils in England's prosperous South East, a net contributor to the Treasury's coffers, are complaining that they are getting a raw deal from the grant funding system, and want this redressed through the Local Government Finance Bill. Michael Burton reports.

The current local government grant funding system is broken and needs repairing, according to a report from local authorities in England's South East which argue they, as well as other councils, are being unfairly penalised.