'Madness' and 'morally wrong': New Greater Manchester MP's fury at unfair funding for councils

After his parents divorced when he was young, Josh Simons spent a lot of time as a child going back and forth between the North of England and the South.

Now settled with his family in the Greater Manchester town of Ramsbottom and one of the new intake of Labour MPs, the 31-year-old is furious at the way local authorities in and around his patch are funded compared with generally leafy areas like Surrey.

The MP for Makerfield, which covers a large part of the Wigan borough, tells The Northern Agenda podcast the disproportionate spending cuts to hit areas in greater need like Wigan and Bury is "morally wrong" and "madness" for a government trying to achieve economic growth.

Read more: Council 'can't provide all services expected' with £60 million budget gap

Labour-run Wigan council has had £180m of its central government funding cut in the last decade of austerity. Most other Northern town halls have been hit just as hard and unlike those in more affluent areas don't have such a large council tax base to help pay for vital services.

At the same time, during the last few years of Conservative government cash-strapped councils have been forced to compete for 'levelling up' money from central government for regeneration projects like the £20m used to regenerate Ashton-under-Lyne town centre.

Hear Josh Simons' talk about Labour's alternative to levelling up and his defence of winter fuel payment cuts on The Northern Agenda podcast:

Former Jeremy Corbn advisor Mr Simons, whose father is from Prestwich and Whitefield, said there was "huge scope" to rethink how local council funding is allocated.

And as a former head of the think-tank Labour Together with close links to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's team before becoming