Metro chiefs habitually complain that the current structure means the borough misses out on cash that goes to comparable local authorities because of the highly complicated formula.

Now Gordon Brown has agreed to meet Wigan MP Neil Turner – who heads a special parliamentary group working to remove the inequalities – to try to thrash out a fairer alternative.

Mr Turner is chairman of the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities representing most of the large towns and cities in the north and midlands, offering a collective voice of urban areas across these regions.

They calculate that member authorities like Wigan "lost" £618m in formula grant over the 2007 Spending Review Period despite having some of the most deprived communities in England.

Currently the existing formula recognises this need but through 'damping' it scales back the amount of funding above a minimum guaranteed increase in grant, which is known as the "floor."

Any funding above the floor is pegged back to be used to enable other authorities under the minimum funding benchmark to be brought up to it.

Mr Turner is now heading the campaign for a fair distribution.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who agreed to the meeting during PMQ's, pointed out that Wigan would received an extra £21m over the next two financial years to tackle further neighbourhood renewal.

Mr Turner said: "We have made a lot of progress in the last decade in tackling disadvantaged communities through Neighbourhood Renewal Funding with Pemberton, Scholes and Beech Hill directly benefitting from this cash.

"We have also seen considerable investment in primary care health facilities across the borough. But a fair system of allocating funds to areas such as Wigan would mean we could do much more to tackle some of the big issues that have a major impact on the quality of life of local people."

Wigan's Government rate support grant for the forthcoming financial year is £129.031m – up 3.72% (£4.625m) on 2008/09.