Where is the Chancellor’s ambition for our communities?

Responding to today’s Budget, Cllr David Sparks, Labour’s Leader in Local Government, said: “The Budget offers slim pickings to the communities bearing the brunt of the Government’s reckless economic decisions. Not only is the Chancellor’s cuts mission speeding ahead too far and too fast, but the pain he is causing isn’t even working. Growth is down this year and the next, so the foundations of economic recovery have been shaken to the core.

“The Chancellor chose to focus on perks for his friends in the City – cutting corporation tax and not continuing the bankers’ bonus tax. He is ambitious for the wealth creation of the richest, but where is his ambition for the rest of us?

“On housing, the shared equity scheme to help 10,000 first-time buyers purchase properties is a start, but without a serious commitment to boosting supply will not solve the problem. Labour have committed to build 25,000 more affordable homes – where is this Government’s ambition for housing?

“With 1 in 5 young people unemployed, providing up to 50,000 new apprenticeships will help, but is nowhere near enough. Labour’s Future Jobs Fund, which this Government abolished, planned to create 150,000 new jobs – where is this Government’s ambition for our young people?

The most dire financial settlement ever witnessed for local government

Responding to the Local Government Finance Settlement, published yesterday, Cllr David Sparks, Leader of Labour Local Government, said: “This is the most dire financial settlement we have ever witnessed for local government, which will have stark ramifications for communities up and down the country.

“Despite bluster that he has protected vulnerable communities, Pickles has still outlined a settlement that is highly variable for individual local authorities, with some facing cuts of 17% in the next year alone. The £85 million transitional grant amounts to less than half a per cent of all grant money, and is a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed to plug the £6.5bn funding shortfall councils are facing this year.

“Pickles had the opportunity to address the unfair frontloading of cuts to local authority budgets and spread them more evenly across the next four years, but he ducked it. This means there is little scope for councils to respond innovatively or reduce costs through advance planning or natural wastage. The way the cuts have been foisted upon councils means many will have no choice but to act swiftly. Services and jobs that could otherwise be saved will have to be cut, and people will soon start to see the effect of this in their neighbourhoods.

“By suggesting that only “lazy” councils will slash frontline services, Pickles has shown that he completely fails to understand the implications of his own policies.

Eric Pickles gives with one hand and takes away with another

Responding to the publication of the Localism and Decentralisation Bill yesterday, Cllr David Sparks, Leader of Labour Local Government, said: “The repeated delays and last minute haggling between Ministers over the content of this unwieldy 208 clause Bill do not fill me with confidence that the proposals it contains have been very well thought through.

“It is all very well Pickles claiming the measures will give councils “more freedom”, but coming just weeks after the unprecedented 28% cuts to council budgets he is giving with one hand and taking away with another. It is not clear how everyone in our communities will be best served by the combination of the worst cuts to council budgets in modern times, multiple new layers of neighbourhood bureaucracy and a system which encourages the competition of sectional interests.

“This Government seems hell bent on undermining the hard work of elected councillors at every turn. Local councils work at the heart of their area, run by elected members who are best placed to know and respond to their residents.

“Now this relationship is to be turned on its head as the Secretary of State will have the power to initiate mayoral referenda regardless of whether the local community wants it or not.

Local Government Leader: “Today’s cuts are an attack on our communities”

Responding to today’s Spending Review announcement, Cllr David Sparks, Leader of Labour Local Government, said:

“The 30% cuts to local government announced today are an attack on our communities, driven by discredited ideology, not fiscal prudence. Local authorities have taken a very unfair hit, as they have already made significant cuts. This is going to have serious knock-on effects for local public services which all our residents, including children, families and the elderly, rely upon.

“It is all very well for the government to devolve power to local government, but if they do not fully devolve budgets at the same time, they simply spread the blame for the deficit without responsibility. There is a sting in the tail of the cuts package that will only fully hit home over the next few months. As individual councils get their settlements by the end of the year, some will lose out more than others and we fear those areas already worse off will be hit harder.

Budget cuts just a taste of what’s yet to come

Responding to yesterday’s Budget, Sir Jeremy Beecham, Labour’s Leader in Local Government, said: “The Chancellor stated today that there would be nothing hidden in the small print of his Budget. He has announced a few headline measures that appear to meet his claims of fairness, but upon closer inspection it is clear that the measures are an attack on the poorest by stealth.

“VAT penalises the poorest because it is a flat rate for everyone – as the Lib Dem Deputy Leader Simon Hughes claimed last week, it is the “most regressive tax”. Hiking it up to 20% not only fails the fairness test, it also fails the economic test by undermining fragile growth. It is interesting to see the Lib Dems, who warned of the ‘Tory VAT Bombshell’ before the election, now nodding in agreement behind the Chancellor as he dropped it on the country.

“On first glance, increasing the income tax threshold looks like a positive step targeted at the less well off. But any good this does to low earners is wiped out by the VAT hike. And the poorest households will see no gain – pensioners, the sick, parents in low-paid part time work and the unemployed – while they will certainly feel the impact of the VAT rise.

Free swimming takes a dive after vindictive ConDem cuts

Labour local government today condemned the Tory-Lib Dem Government’s decision to end free swimming in public pools for under 16s and over 60s from 1st July. The scheme was part of the 2012 Legacy aimed at getting more people involved in sport and improving the health of the nation. When the Labour Government introduced the scheme in 2008 it was warmly welcomed by the Conservatives who whose only criticism was that it did not do enough for young people.

LGA Labour Group spokesperson Cllr Simon Henig, Leader of Durham County Council, said: “This one decision will cause a triple whammy of knock-on effects for the public. Children and older people lose their free swimming entitlement, the health benefits of more opportunities to get involved in sport will disappear and the 2012 Legacy is undermined.

Local government cuts make a mockery of “we’re all in this together” claim

The Tory Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has today announced a raft of cuts to local government totalling £1.165bn. The cuts have been made from funding streams within the Area Based Grant, which is targeted at councils in areas with high levels of deprivation, not from the councils’ formula grant.

Responding to the announcements, Sir Jeremy Beecham, Leader of the LGA Labour Group said: “These cuts will be a major blow to people up and down the country who depend on services that are now to be slashed. While the Lib Dem-Tory Coalition sit in their Westminster offices tearing up funding for grants, the harsh reality of these cuts will be all too painfully felt in our communities.

“Victims of Pickles’ axe include initiatives to tackle worklessness in England’s most deprived areas, housing related support to vulnerable people and programmes to boost community cohesion in poor areas. Housing delivery funding has also been cut, undermining the prospects for crucial housing development that the Labour Government worked so hard to support through the recession.

Conservative and Lib Dem localism claims questioned

With just over three weeks in office, the ConDem Coalition has already called into question its proclaimed belief in localism in three different policy areas, claims Sir Jeremy Beecham Leader of the LGA Labour Group.

“First they made clear their intention to marginalise councils in relation to education. Then they inflicted the ridiculous requirement on councils, many of whose budgets run into hundreds of millions of pounds, to publish details of all items of expenditure over £500. Now the Coalition Government has forbidden councils to charge for rubbish thrown away rather than recycled, even though recycling rates are far too low.

“You don’t have to agree with charging to realise that this ought to be a matter for local decision, not central government prescription. To be fair, they’re talking about a general power of competence for councils, but that won’t mean much if councils are only free to do what the government wants.”

No Labour complacency in fight against the BNP

The successes against the BNP in Barking and Stoke in the General Election have created a sense that the tide is turning against the BNP, But these high-profile victories hide a murkier picture in which the BNP actually grew in popularity. Today Labour councillors warn that the biggest threat now in the fight against the BNP is complacency.

The real story of what happened in the election shows the BNP gaining votes, even if this didn’t translate into national or local election gains:

* The BNP share of the vote rose once again, as it has done at every General Election.
* The BNP got more votes per candidate then ever before.
* Half a million people across Britain voted BNP.

Local Labour argues that the worst possible response would be to sit back in the belief that we have overcome the high point of the BNP’s popularity. In a radical new report published today, ‘Challenging the BNP’, Labour councillors set out a rigorous strategy for fighting the BNP in every community, equipping activists to continue the battle.

ConDem coalition Queen’s Speech marginalises local councils

Responding to the Queen’s Speech, Sir Jeremy Beecham, Labour’s Leader in Local Government, said, “Proposals in the Queen’s Speech on education and referendums on council tax increases confirm fears that under the guise of localism the ConDem Coalition is bent on marginalizing councils and councillors.”

He continued, “Councils do not currently ‘control’ schools, they support them, oversee standards and admissions policies and link them to other council services. The Government is clearly determined exclude councils as much as possible from the crucial education agenda, rely on market forces to rule the roost, while retaining ultimate control themselves.

“One-way referendums on council tax and referendums on any issue substantially dilute the principle of representative democracy and accountability through local elections – the Government would not subject itself to this kind of process.