The annual LGA conference is a valuable opportunity to catch up with the leading lights of local government, hear new ideas and of course to discuss the burning issues of the day.

The main issue focusing minds is of course the scale of budget cuts to local government and a stark warning that should cuts continue at the same relentless rate, by 2020 councils will just about have enough money to look after the elderly and vulnerable adults and not a great deal else. Soon the cries that folk pay so much council tax to get their bins emptied will be replaced with a deep seeded anger that they have been short changed.

And the truth is that local government and by extension local people have been hard done by. The frontline services that people rely on and value are being hit and the weak ‘we’ll do more for less’ message as local politicians attempt to manage the impact of cuts will need to be replaced with a more honest ‘less for much less’.

And if councils were only responsible for service delivery then it would be bad enough. But the truth is that battening down the hatch and hoping the worst will blow over leaves a gaping hole. So what of the local economy?

In Oldham we have been hit massively by government cuts and hit again by the lack of any coherent economic strategy from central government.

Labour councils are not in the business of managing decline, we are about improving the social and economic wellbeing of our residents. To deliver on that we must step up and accept that the tough decisions just got tougher.

In Oldham we know we cannot afford to wait for the government to wake up. Estimates are that by 2020 a further 4,000 people will be unemployed if the current trend continues.

So we have taken the difficult but essential decision to reduce service budgets further to create an economic job creation fund to boost regeneration and get people back into work.

We have begun to see the benefits with the relocation of a major engineering company with the potential to create a further 500 jobs and a high end national training hotel and conference centre creating 120 jobs and 120 apprenticeships.

Reducing service further is not a position we would choose to be in but one which is vital if we are to deliver on our responsibility to improve the social and economic wellbeing of our residents.

—————————————————————————————

James McMahon is a Labour councillor on Oldham council and tweets @CllrJimMcMahon

—————————————————————————————

Photo: Elias Schwerdtfeger