On the last day of party conference I took part in a discussion with Caroline Flint on Standing As A Councillor. One of the questions put forward was related to the local government settlement. My response was short and sweet – this government does not understand the needs of our communities. The question is how can Labour-run authorities respond that will set the stage for a Labour mayor and a Labour government?
There’s no doubt that the aim of the Tories is to reduce the role of local government within our communities. Yet London boroughs in particular are expected to continue to meet the growing pressures on providing enough school places as well as building enough adequate housing, despite support for social housing being cut by more than 60 per cent.
Weekly bin collections are important to me, but I hear nothing from the government that will help us to deal with the massive inequity in our city. Although London has more high-income households than any other region in England, it also contains the largest proportion of low-income households. Twenty-eight per cent of the capital’s neighbourhoods are in the most deprived 20 per cent in the country.
Faced with such deep cuts I am happy to see that no Labour councils have been seduced by the extreme left position of setting an illegal budget by refusing to make any cuts. That position damaged Labour during the 1980s as Labour-run councils were branded as ‘Looney Left’ and helped make the party unelectable during that period. However, I do understand councillors now calling for a cut in top senior managers, even though this is more symbolic than actually making any significant dent in the millions that we have to cut.
During this time I believe that it’s important that Labour authorities are able to show what they stand for. Prevention work is often not a statutory service that councils must provide (for example early family prevention work) and these may be put forward by local government officers as the most obvious options. I fear that cutting prevention services will cost us not only in financial terms years down the line but in social terms as well. ‘Dealing with the root cause’ has been a line spun out by all parties – now Labour can show that we are committed to our communities.
Shared services and more joined-up working is something that elected members need to push forward. Boroughs can become extremely territorial. However, some councils have worked well together, for example the west London alliance of Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea and the City of Westminster, reaping not only the financial benefits of working together but are now a political force for the Tories. Labour boroughs in the east should think about a closer partnership.
I ask myself how vocal has Boris Johnson has been in his duty to stand up for London. Local authorities have been put in the position where they are having to choose between library services, tackling anti-social behaviour, transport for the vulnerable, or housing provision, to name but a few. While Johnson talks of cutting bureaucracy and local government waste, the long-term effects of the government’s policies continue to impact on the development of communities.
I hope that Labour councils will take a strategic long-term approach to the cuts, by ringfencing key services. While our priorities will be different in every borough, it would send a strong political message if our response was somehow coordinated. Most councils have been doing cuts ‘across the board’, but what makes having a Labour-run council different? In these dark days with a weak mayor and a government that does not care, Labour councils are lights of hope in London.
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Josie Channer is Labour’s London assembly candidate for Bexley and Bromley
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Hi Josie, a final contribution on this site by me.
I had a call last week, a casework and one that highlights the strength of the beacon of light that Labour Councils emit.
A resident in my Ward and her neighbors had an issue with the plumbing. The out-sourced private sector company responsible for maintaining these essential “ring-fenced” services failed to address the problem for six days and complaints by residents ignored.
For six days these residents could not use their toilets except to manually clean them themselves with their hands and carrier bags.
I have to say with performances like this you can all lead the way with your guiding light, behind a tired Ken Livingstone who ironically has found himself reliant on the very party he has snubbed time and again as he employs as Barking and Dagenham Council does, any means to achieve his ends regardless of the impact upon the public and members of the Party.
Barking and Dagenham Council planned to privatize its services even before the banking crises and the Battle of Barking changed nothing as the same old tired agenda was forced through that would be no different to that offered on Tory Councils.
Except of course Josie, on most democratic Councils the Councillors are permitted to speak and communicate freely and enjoy the freedoms given to us all by servicemen and women who fought to retain our democracy and still do. But then Barking and Dagenham Councillors are policed and even their letters to the local press doctored.
My own letters to the press were highly effective in challenging the Tories and not a single Labour Councillor on Barking and Dagenham Council went public with any complaints or indeed even issues raised by their constituents. All was well, but even so the paranoia and weirdness of the Leadership was such that they still had to inflict more undemocratic measures upon their members.
Any challenges for the whip were reconciled and the public unaware of any issues not by compromise, reason or even a cynical deal, but with bullying, fear and intimidation.
It is clear to me now why the public could not distinguish between the Council Executive and the BNP because there is so little between them in terms of hating democracy, freedom, improving policy through understanding it rather than forcing people to believe that there can be no improvements and all is perfect to satisfy the very fragile and unstable egos of the Leadership idiots who fail their residents daily and place them at the bottom of the list of their priorities.
A problem of toilets then and very little for Boris Johnson to fear as there are no leading lights in London currently.
Take care Josie, nice bit of propaganda here, without a single solid economic solution to the current problems.
that’s because right now it would take a second coming to solve the economic problems ! a miracle would be handy of course ! there IS enough money on the planet just as there is enough food and water yet people starve and go thirsty – the exploiters the hoarders the game players will simply see populations go to the wall – and why ? well simply because they can ,it makes them feel powerful ,it makes them feel that they are right that they are good and that the hoi poloi are all well,toilet scrubbers.
that’s because right now it would take a second coming to solve the economic problems ! a miracle would be handy of course ! there IS enough money on the planet just as there is enough food and water yet people starve and go thirsty – the exploiters the hoarders the game players will simply see populations go to the wall – and why ? well simply because they can ,it makes them feel powerful ,it makes them feel that they are right that they are good and that the hoi poloi are all well,toilet scrubbers.
its just not a good look really is it ,evicting gypsies in November,perhaps they could have allowed them to winter there?
apparently the riot police are in charge now ,the gypsies did wee wee on the police at one point ! bless !!
(midday)
ha, the Mail and Telegraph are going to great lengths to discredit the demo at St. Paul’s – methinks THEY doth protest too much ! no coherent defence of the greed of virulent Capitalism you notice ! don’t they know most youngsters are Dracula these days ,or rather nights ! sleeping by day . Nice try you brown tops, but nah,
job not done .
and ,the photo of the kid with the whiskey bottle ! I mean ,we never got a photo of Liam Fox with one of his “fine bots of old wine” did we !