THURROCK COUNCIL leader John Kent has joined 150 other leaders from local and national government and called on the chancellor, George Osborne to reflect on the damage that cuts are having on local services.
The leaders have written an open letter that was published in the Observer on Sunday (June 16th).
It states:
“By the end of this parliament, councils’ funding from central government will have been cut by 33%. In comparison, Whitehall departments will have faced average reductions of 12%.
This pattern cannot be repeated without it having a serious impact on local services and people.
Councils have so far taken £3.1bn from the annual pay bill, reduced management costs by more than 12.5% and saved hundreds of millions of pounds by teaming up to provide both back office and frontline services. Council tax increases have also been kept well below the rate of inflation for the past four years. The resilience of local government cannot be stretched much further. For many councils, new funding cuts in 2015/16 will lead to a significant reduction in, and in some cases even loss of, important local services.
In the next spending round, local government finance must be put on a sustainable footing. To do this, the government has to adjust health and schools budgets to incorporate the local services that help the elderly stay independent longer and ensure children are ready for school. This will ultimately save money by reducing pressure on our hospitals, police and prisons.
It must also embark on a rewiring of public services. The only way of maintaining them in the face of proposed long-term cuts is to design them around the needs of people and communities. That means devolving budgets away from Whitehall to increase co-operation between public agencies, save money and improve services.
Local government bore the brunt of cuts in the last spending review. For the sake of the public it cannot afford to do so again. It would be bad for the country, bad for people and bad for our prospects of economic recovery if funding for local services is cut further to reinforce inefficiencies within Whitehall.
Can the comrade tell us how many people have been made redundant from Thurrock Council. P
Can the comrade tell us how many people have been made redundant from Thurrock council. Perhaps he can also explain where they found £41 million pounds to spend on housing and schools in the wake of the crippling cuts. Funny how they managed to find that money a year before they’re up for re-election.
Another cut comrade Kent should do is the management gang who screwed up the refuse collections so disastrously.
Maybe Mr Kent can explain why the cuts have been made necessary and also what his own party would do differently to rectify the shortfall that the previous government left the country in with out turning to mass borrowing again.
Councils are so bloated that they all need to be cut. The more bloated they are, the more inefficient they become and Labour are the masters of creating jobs that do not need to be created.
I’d cut a large proportion of senior managers, cut all equality and diversity teams, cut councillor numbers (no more than two per ward) and their salaries and sell off any unwanted buildings. I’d also scale back the back office teams and bring housing repairs services back in house as private companies have proved to be expensive and have provided a poor service.
It would appear that the glorious leader is completely at odds with the leader of his party. Everything Kent and his supporters and Labour supporters have opposed for the last 3 years has been ripped and and throw away. The awful truth of their dismal abuse of this country over 13 years has come home to roost. Immigration, spending, welfare, all total failures that have brought this country to it’s knees. And yet still people will support them. It beggars belief.