David Cameron has been urged to end the divide between town and country caused by short-changing rural areas.

A delegation of MPs from rural constituencies yesterday pressed the Prime Minister at a Downing Street summit.

The all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on rural services claims people living in the country have low pay and pay more council tax, but get less money from Whitehall to fund for transport, education and health.

Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset are among the most sparsely-populated counties in England. But MPs from across the political spectrum in the region have long warned this is ignored in Government funding formulas.

MPs said the meeting went well, and Mr Cameron was "extremely sympathetic", but that the campaign would continue.

Westcountry MP Dan Rogerson, vice-chairman of the APPG, 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 it's more of a lifeline."

The Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall added: "The message should be we need equal funding no matter where people live."

The delegation was led by Graham Stuart, Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness in Yorkshire, who is chairman of the APPG.

Mr Stuart said: "Rural areas have been punished for their prudence and efficiency for too long. In tough times it is essential that we move to a fairer allocation of limited public resources. Over recent years public spending has been skewed so as to advantage urban areas and leave rural communities in the cold. We must now make a start in putting this right."

The Prime Minister was pressed on taking a "personal interest in changing the way public funding is assigned so that allocations are always on the basis of need".

Mr Stuart added: "People in rural areas earn less on average than those in cities, pay council tax which is £100 higher per head and then see government grants to urban areas 50 per cent higher than those in the countryside.

"The cost of delivering services in sparse, rural areas is higher than in cities and those on low incomes are peculiarly disadvantaged. Rural England has had too weak a voice in government for too long."

The coalition Government has stressed repeatedly that it understands the countryside, criticising Labour's 13-year guardianship.

Mr Cameron, who represents a largely rural constituency in Oxfordshire, has described himself as a "country boy". In an interview broadcast on BBC1's Countryfile at the weekend, the Prime Minister was anxious to burnish his rural credentials.

He repeated his promise of a free Commons vote on a repeal of the ban on hunting with dogs, labelling the legislation "bizarre". Mr Cameron also criticised Labour for delaying action to tackle TB in cattle, and said his Government sanctioning a cull of badgers was "right".

But there have only been partial attempts to reform the way Whitehall funding is handed down. Education Secretary Michael Gove has promised to end the "historic inequalities" in schools funding. Critics say the current system takes little consideration of the added costs involved in running schools in the countryside.

But there is little appetite to overhaul health and transport funding – two major bones of contention. Ministers have also been criticised for scrapping the rural policing grant, a move slammed by Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Stephen Otter.

After the meeting, Mr Stuart said: "The Prime Minister was extremely sympathetic not least because his own constituency is so rural. But we took him back to the fact the funding formulae for schools, health, fire and police are all skewed in favour of urban areas and said as the Government reviews its funding formulae it needs to ensure it doesn't take the unfairness in the current system into the new formula.

"This is the start of a rural fair share campaign and we will be using all the tools available to make the case."