Today the County Councils Network has had a letter to the Prime Minister, calling on him to ‘level up’ funding for county areas compared to their urban counterparts, published in the Telegraph.

The letter, signed by 33 out of 36 county leaders in the network’s membership, has been widely covered across the BBC today. You can read a press release on the letter here.

Below, the chairman-elect of the County Councils Network, Cllr David Williams, was interviewed on BBC News at midday. He told the channel that “we feel very strongly that there is quite a poor deal between our type of local authority and other types of councils.”

You can watch an introduction to the piece and the first part of Cllr Williams’s interview below.

Below, watch Cllr Williams, who is leader of Hertfordshire County Council, tell the BBC that it is important that government provides ‘clarity’ on funding for councils over the medium term; with a one-year Spending Review to be concluded next month.

He added: “We also want a commitment over the medium term, a cast-iron commitment that there will be fairer approach to the way that local authorities are funded going forward.”

Separately, BBC’s flagship Radio 4 Today programme covered the letter – below you can watch a voiceover overview of the network’s advocacy and key arguments.

The unedited full letter sent to the Telegraph can be viewed here.

Various county leaders have taken to the airwaves to discuss the issue, including BBC Stoke, BBC Oxfordshire, BBC Three Counties, BBC North West, BBC Look East, BBC Worcestershire, and BBC Surrey, among others.

Below, watch a clip from BBC Look East’s coverage on Monday evening – featuring interviews with Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

BBC North West also covered the issue, featuring an interview with Lancashire and referencing the all the county authorities in the region who signed the letter.

Finally, BBC Spotlight, which covers Devon and Cornwall, covered the letter on their programme – and asked the Prime Minister for assurances over council funding for care services.

The full list of signatories are as follows:

Cllr David Williams (Con), Leader, Hertfordshire County Council

Cllr Paul Carter (Con), Leader, Kent County Council

Cllr Nick Rushton (Con), Leader, Leicestershire County Council

Cllr Peter Nutting (Con), Leader, Shropshire Council

Cllr Andrew Proctor (Con), Leader, Norfolk County Council

Cllr Keith Mans (Con), Leader, Hampshire County Council

Cllr Kay Cutts (Con), Leader, Nottinghamshire County Council

Cllr Carl Les (Con), Leader, North Yorkshire County Council

Cllr Steve Count (Con), Leader, Cambridgeshire County Council

Cllr Mark Hawthorne (Con), Leader, Gloucestershire County Council

Cllr Keith Glazier (Con), Leader, East Sussex County Council

Cllr Julian German (Ind), Leader, Cornwall Council

Cllr Philip Atkins (Con), Leader, Staffordshire County Council

Cllr Martin Hill (Con), Leader, Lincolnshire County Council

Cllr Philip Whitehead (Con), Leader, Wiltshire Council

Cllr John Hart (Con), Leader, Devon County Council

Cllr David Fothergill (Con), Leader, Somerset County Council

Cllr Sam Corcoran (Lab), Leader, Cheshire East Council

Cllr Matthew Hicks (Con), Leader, Suffolk County Council

Cllr Izzi Seccombe (Con), Leader, Warwickshire County Council

Cllr Louise Goldsmith (Con), Leader, West Sussex County Council

Cllr Barry Lewis (Con), Leader, Derbyshire County Council

Cllr Ian Hudspeth (Con), Leader, Oxfordshire County Council

Cllr David Finch (Con), Leader, Essex County Council

Cllr Stewart Young (Lab), Leader, Cumbria County Council

Cllr Geoff Driver (Con), Leader, Lancashire County Council

Cllr David Hitchiner (Ind), Leader, Herefordshire Council

Cllr Martin Tett (Con), Leader, Buckinghamshire County Council

Cllr Simon Geraghty (Con), Leader, Worcestershire County Council

Cllr Tim Oliver (Con), Leader, Surrey County Council

Cllr Peter Jackson (Con), Leader, Northumberland County Council

Cllr Richard Burton (Con), Leader, East Riding of Yorkshire