The Government has shown brazen cheek in the way it has dealt with council tax in Brighton and Hove.

Last year it gave the city one of the worst grant settlements in England. This made it inevitable that the authority would be forced to put up council tax by a large percentage and to make major cuts.

Now it has told a resident who complained about the rise that ministers are dismayed at the increase.

This poses the obvious question. If you gave Brighton and Hove such a miserable settlement, what did you expect the council to do?

As well as putting up council tax by 14.5 per cent, the authority also had to make cuts totalling £6 million.

There are always arguments about whether the council is efficient and whether it is spending money on essentials.

But whatever the council has done right or wrong, its main funding comes from the Government and its only responses to poor settlements must be cuts and council tax increases.

The Government has simply not provided enough cash to cover costs of waste disposal, social care and other vital services for this year or next.

That's the message local councillors from all parties should be giving the Government loud and clear.

The cash settlement for the coming year is certain to be worse unless the officials who made the stupid remarks about how dismayed they were at the rise are forced to see the error of their ways.