St Helens Council leader backs anti-austerity campaign

Council and Labour group leaders across the country have signed an open letter, which will launch a campaign by Councils Against Austerity at the Labour party conference in Liverpool this week.

Cllr Derek Long, leader of St Helens Council, has told the Local Democracy Service that campaign organisers have been asked to add his name to the list of signatories to the letter.

He said: “We in the St Helens Labour group regularly deplore the effects government cutting almost half of local authorities’ budgets are having on the borough’s residents.

“Like the other national campaigns we already support, I support the Local Authorities Anti-Austerity Campaign which is being launched today.

“I have already discussed tactics in detail with the campaign organisers and you will hear more when the government’s unfair reform of local council finances is published.”

The open letter says the leaders believe the government’s current path of austerity leads to “infrastructural and social collapse”.

Labour leaders call on the Conservative government to reverse the “disastrous policy” of austerity it claims has been “disproportionately” weighted against local authorities.

The letter says: “Budget restrictions (in the form of direct cuts and budget pressures) have meant losses of almost 50 per cent for councils across the country.

“This has had disastrous knock-on impacts for services, as the stop-gaps that were once in place to prevent destitution have been stripped back.

“Already, a number of councils have cut their services to a statutory minimum, with more likely to follow in the coming months and years.”

The letter says the Local Government Association believes that councils will have lost 77 per cent of its budget by 2020.

A “huge increase” in crime, decline in life expectancy and increase in foodbank usage, homelessness and rough sleeping are “inevitable consequences of the destruction of the social contract between citizen and state”, the letter claims.

“We believe government’s current path of austerity leads to infrastructural and social collapse,” the letter says.

“We therefore call on government to reverse the disastrous policy of austerity that has dominated thinking in the Treasury since 2010 and has been disproportionately weighted against local authorities.”

The letter makes a list of demands, including for the government to adopt a “needs-led” approach to funding methodology for local government.

This approach would see the government recognise the differences in demand for services between different local authorities in different geographies, as well as different available levels of income.

Leaders have also called for more freedom for local authorities to set local taxes, retain local revenue and allow the proceeds of growth to be kept locally.

Council chiefs have asked for a movement away from funding via ring-fenced grants, and towards allowing more discretion and local democratic oversight over spending by local authorities.

Lastly, they have called for a reversal of the national drive towards business rates retention as an alternative to central government funding.

Here is the letter, in full: 

We, the undersigned, call upon the government to recognise the catastrophic impact which eight years of uninterrupted austerity has had on local government.

Local government is the primary provider of numerous essential services, which allow our country to operate on a day-to-day basis. It is the first port of call for children in need of care, for those facing homelessness and those fleeing domestic abuse and violence or caring for the elderly. We are responsible for quality controls on housing in the rental sector, responsible for maintaining our local infrastructure, preserving our public green space and bin collections and local sanitation.

Budget restrictions (in the form of direct cuts and budget pressures) have meant losses of almost 50% for councils across the country. This has had disastrous knock-on impacts for services, as the stop-gaps that were once in place to prevent destitution have been stripped back. Already, a number of councils have cut their services to a statutory minimum, with more likely to follow in the coming months and years.

The Local Government Association believes that councils will have lost 77% of their budget by 2020, and Conservative Chair of the LGA, Gary Porter, says that will leave an £5.8bn funding gap for local government: “We won’t be cleaning the streets, we won’t be cutting the grass, we won’t be putting streetlights on at all, your libraries will go, your potholes won’t get filled up.”

We believe that the huge increase in crime we have seen in recent years, decline in life expectancy and increase in foodbank usage, homelessness and rough sleeping are inevitable consequences of the destruction of the social contract between citizen and state. We believe government’s current path of austerity leads to infrastructural and social collapse.

We therefore call on government to reverse the disastrous policy of austerity that has dominated thinking in the Treasury since 2010 and has been disproportionately weighted against local authorities.

We demand:

1. A needs-led approach to funding methodology for Local Government, recognising the differences in demand for services between different local authorities in different geographies, as well as different available levels of income (e.g. Council Tax and Business Rates collection).
2. More freedom for local authorities to set local taxes, retain local revenue and allow the proceeds of growth to be kept locally. A movement away from funding via ring-fenced grants, and towards allowing more discretion and local democratic oversight over spending by Local Authorities.
3. A reversal of the national drive towards Business Rates Retention as an alternative to central government funding, which creates a patchwork quilt of local authorities competing with one another to lower their rates.