A cross-party group of MPs has urged the government to act to protect rural counties from the worst effects of austerity measures. Rural regions have been hit hard by budget cuts; these have impacted on transport education and healthcare.

Findings from research conducted over the past year have variously revealed that residents of rural regions spend more on food, private transport, pay higher taxes and benefit less from public services and spending than their urban counterparts. This time last year, representatives of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Rural Affairs met with Prime Minister David Cameron to address the growing divide between rural and urban regions.

Speaking in January 2012, the APPG's vice chair Dan Rogerson said, "Time and again we have found that the funding formula for public services do not account for factors unique to rural areas; they are peripheral areas, with sparse communities and quite often an ageing population. On transport, it costs much more to fund bus services that are low usage, but they are no less of a lifeline to rural areas than in urban areas, sometimes more of a lifeline."

However, evidence suggests that the business-centred solutions being rolled out are doing little to improve quality of life in the countryside.

Now, one year down the line, another group of MPs representing rural communities has called for respite from the worst effects of austerity. 45 MPs have warned that the government's 2013/14 Local Government Financial Settlement, delivered in December, carries grave threats for those in the countryside.

Graham Stuart, conservative MP for Beverly launched the Rural Fair Share Campaign this month. Reiterating the argument used in discussion with Mr Cameron as part of the APPG on Rural Affairs last year, Mr Stuart pointed out that urban councils receive 50 percent more funding per head than rural regions, though services are more expensive to deliver in more sparsely populated areas.

He said, "Enough is enough. Overall, rural residents earn less, on average, than those in cities, pay council tax which is £75 higher per head but see urban areas receive government grants 50 percent higher per head than those in the countryside. This means people in rural areas earn less, pay higher council tax and then receive substantially less support for services."

Mr Stuart said the Local Government Financial Settlement "threatens to entrench the injustice suffered by rural areas by further widening the gap between the funding given to rural and urban councils." However, concern over the settlement is not unique to rural counties; upon its release, Birmingham City Council leader Sir Albert Bore said the Financial Settlement, which promises deeper, more painful cuts across the board, heralds "the end of local government as we know it" and may mean some local authorities become 'financially unviable'.

The cuts delivered under the settlement are so severe that councillors in Liverpool warned they would "Spark Riots" and West Somerset Council, upon discovering it had been effectively bankrupted, began investigating the possibility of transforming itself into a 'commissioning authority' and laying off almost all of its staff.