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News and Comment December 2024

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7 December (Part 1) - Stef is very happy. David may not be

The missing Cabinet meeting webcast limped on line last Tuesday - sorry, too busy to report since then - and I immediately checked its running time to judge how long it might take to summarise. Good news, only 53 minutes and even better news, the first six minutes and the last two were nothing but video of Councillors shuffling papers etc. Despite the Leader saying that “A heavy session lies ahead of us tonight” it did not prove to be anything out of the ordinary.

As usual it was mainly about money.

The Baroness said the Council was still under “ontinued pressure despite constant mitigations”

To everyone’s relief Deputy Director of Finance said she has spent £4·l705 million more than budgeted by September, up by £1·733 million from the previous month. As usual, locking after children got the blame for almost all of it. £45.7 million is going on Capital expenditure in Places. (Neighbourhoods? I wish they would make up their mind what to call it.) There has been a shift from twn to twelve monthly installments on Council Tax payments which defers income but it should come back on target by the end of the year.

Cabinet Member Leaf uncharacteristically said he didn’t have much to add. And to everyone’s relief he didn’t!

Cabinet Member Seymour said the withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Allowance by “an out of touch Labour Government” was “causing untold hardship to elderly residents” and “the demands on the Council are unprecedented”.

Councillor Borella (Labour Leader) was concerned that the overspends would come out of reserves while the Auditor had said they should be replenished. “What are the risks?” he asked. He was told that there are “lots of mitigations going on” but the situation is “difficult” and the Council is “very mindful of it”. The tone was entirely pessimistic and the Governmentְ’s dithering is not helping.

Ominously, the Council Leader spoke of no account yet being taken of the relaxation of Council Tax limits. Next year’s funding settlement will not be known until 19th December.

Councillor Leaf provided an alarming summary on how a failing Labour Government is going to hit Councils in the pocket.


• Their promise of “a cash increase for Local Authorities may not necessarily translate into a real terms increase for some Authorities”.
• The schools uplift per pupil appears to be up by 2·18% which is below the current rate of inflation. Schools will also have to pay more National Insurance contributions.
• The Chancellor has admitted that her budget will suppress future growth rates and interest rates will be higher for longer. Both of these will adversely impact the Council and the OBR report “makes for grim reading”.
• The Employment Rights Bill “comes with a big price tag. The care sector alone will pay an extra billion pounds much of it falling on local authorities”.
• The Government has failed so far to say if Councils will be offered any relief from the increased National Insurance contributions.
• The Homelessness Prevention Grant, Social Care funding, Discretionary Housing Payments and Household Support funding are all either unknowns or been cut back.


Cabinet Member for Place Shaping, Cafer Munur, said his contribution towards financial mitigations would to to appoint a Deputy Director of Transformation early next year. (As if no senior manager ever thinks of improving things in the normal course of events.)

Cabinet Member Richard Diment said that despite the Government’s attacks on, well most working people really, none of the services provided by his Directorate will be reduced. Bins, road cleaning and grass cutting would carry on as usual while the performance standards continue to improve. Missed bins are now down to 0·1% and recycling rates are back over 50%. The pedestrian crossing programme will be extended to Labour wards, the next one will be constructed, subject to Consultation, in Slade Green Road.

Councillor Borella said he “was very happy” to see “the problems your Government created over 14 years” being addressed especially Living and Minimum wage rates being increased and everyone “having more money in their pockets because residents in our borough will be able to spend it here and it should be welcomed after years of strikes and an NHS that has been falling apart and the National Insurance increases will deal with those issues. I am very happy with my Prime Minister and very happy with the Cabinet. I am not ashamed of being a Labour politician.”

Cabinet Member Leaf reminded Councillor Borella that the National Living Wage rise is exactly in line with the formula devised by the previous Conservative Government which in turn is based on the Minimum wage formula. If the Government does not cover the extra costs imposed on the Council they must come from local resources. Where were Labour’s “fully costed Manifesto promises”? They instead imposed £40 billion of tax increases. “He may be happy with the Prime Minister but I don’t think many of the people of this country are.”

 

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