Tory leader: Budget speech in full

Cllr Phil Anderson, budget response speech 29th Feb 2012

“First I would like to thank members and officers for their hard work over many months in preparation and scrutiny of this budget.

Our approach as an opposition has been one of constructive criticism. Our aim has been to get our concerns on the table early, and offer sensible alternatives where possible. A number of changes have already been made as a result, and I thank the administration for accepting these.

There are some things we are able to welcome about this budget. Last year the administration proposed cuts to services that we were deeply unhappy with:

Removal of funding for community policing
A change to fortnightly bin collections across the borough
Cutbacks in cleaning and greening services
Increased charges for ‘panic alarms’ used by vulnerable elderly residents

At the time we said that these cuts were unnecessary and this council joined us in voting them down. We have been proven correct, and I am pleased that the administration have now abandoned these misguided proposals and they have not made a reappearance this year.

Finally I can wholeheartedly welcome the fact that additional government money has been made available to ensure that Thurrock taxpayers will not see a single penny extra on their council tax bills next year.

The government decision to fund a council tax freeze will bring welcome relief to ordinary working families in Thurrock, and I am pleased that this council is proposing to accept the offer that the government has made.

However, there are a number of aspects of this budget which do concern us. The government challenged councils to deliver a council tax freeze. It did not ask them for an ideas freeze, a vision freeze, or a courage freeze.

There are too many areas in which this budget fails to tackle politically difficult issues which we absolutely must address within the next two years. By failing to consider them now, the changes when they inevitably come will be harsh and hasty rather than well planned and properly cushioned.

This additional government money was given to allow councils time to adapt and make savings. By instead choosing to spend it on day-to-day running costs to avoid the appearance of cutting anything, this Labour budget is dishonest and simply pushes the problem a year into the future.

It is a continuation of the 13 years of ‘spend now, pay later’ which brought Britain to the verge of bankruptcy under the last Labour government.

Labour may feel that they cannot take the risk of revealing their plans before the local elections in May.

We believe that people want their politicians to be honest about what still needs to be done and to get on with the job.

At the same time, there are huge opportunities for Thurrock in areas like housing, communities, and the environment.

We have heard some positive talk in recent weeks on these subjects, but almost none of it appears in black and white in this budget. Good intentions are fine, but let’s see them backed up by solid financial commitments, voted on and agreed by this council.

Later in the debate I will move a series of amendments which address some of these shortcomings. My shadow cabinet team will be outlining some of them in greater detail, but I will summarise the main points now (a costed list, approved by the director of finance, has been circulated).

A fundamental overhaul of the council housing allocations system. Local people have lost faith in the system, and many feel that it discriminates against people who work hard to try to help themselves. Our future system must pass the tests of fairness and compassion, while providing a hand-up not a hand-out.
Develop early, detailed schemes for new housing on council land. Government changes are about to release £6M of new housing money to Thurrock, and the 2000 people on our waiting lists should not have to wait for us to decide how we are going to use it. We should offer a range of options including council, housing association, and shared ownership schemes to maximise new homes and help more people onto the ladder of eventual home ownership.

Implement multi-service ‘one stop shop’ council locations for every major community in Thurrock. Progress since Cllr Arnold first proposed this idea as a motion has been too slow; we must now move immediately to get proposals out for public consultation in every area. If we do not make this idea work quickly, we will be forced to make service cuts in other areas to compensate.

It is well proven that voluntary and community groups can deliver great value, community focussed services. We should update our current system of grants to include much clearer measures of what services we are getting in return. On this firm foundation, we should aim to increase the total value of services delivered through the community sector by at least 25% (£108K) in the first year. The only place where grants should continue without a direct service link is for backing new ideas or for micro projects agreed at local level.

At the moment there is sense that local services and projects are ‘done to’ communities rather than decided by them. We should devolve spending decisions to local communities and ward councillors as an ‘area budget’ (eg: smaller highways schemes, parks, libraries, community facilities, environmental services). Aim for £4M to be allocated this way in first year.

With most of Thurrock’s secondary schools moving to academy status, our old model of a large central education department is no longer viable. We should reduce the amount of centrally retained schools budget, and increase the amount given directly to schools. Current budget is £10M, aim to devolve £1M in first year, rising to 2.2M in following year.

Carry out a future skills needs survey, to identify what actual skills will be needed for the new jobs to be created in Thurrock and start working with schools, colleges, and employers to train (and re-train) individuals to fill them.

Invest in a borough-wide low energy LED street lighting scheme: 3 year scheme expected to cost £2M/year.

Pays for itself in 3-5 years through lower energy costs and maintenance, and reduces carbon footprint.

Offer licensing discounts for low emission taxis, to encourage cleaner vehicles and reduce local air pollution and CO2 emissions. 50% discount on vehicle licenses, with future reviews set to continue covering costs as present.

Carry out a full review of school & denominational transport, bus subsidy, and community transport. We currently spend more than other boroughs (£3.7M in total), and pay for things that few other areas provide. We propose to start the review immediately, but to leave the full budget in place in for the first year to cover the costs of transition. And for those who may claim this is an attack on community transport I will state this: my personal belief is that schemes such as Transvol may well play a greater role in the future, not less.

People feel strong sense of injustice when they play by the rules while others flout them. We should increase resources for fraud detection, including council tax fraud, benefit fraud, housing fraud, contract fraud, internal fraud, etc. Evidence shows that the money recovered and deterrent effect created should cover the costs in full.

Many of these ideas are not new, and we believe the administration may well agree with them.

If so then the challenge is clear: if you are serious about these things, then let’s vote tonight to commit financially to making them happen.

Others represent our vision for a great value, community focussed local authority. These are the ideas that we would take forwards in administration, and therefore we want to see them reflected in the council’s financial plans.

Our message to the administration is this: if you lack the creativity and courage to take Thurrock forwards, we do not. We are ready make the difficult choices and ready to embrace new ideas, rather than delaying change until it is too late.