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Continued Tory austerity measures smoke screen for Tory small government policy

by Ian Shires on 18 August, 2016

CouncilWalsall’s Liberal Democrats have accused the Tories of using continued austerity measures as a smoke screen to promote the Tory policy for small government which further divides the haves and those who have not. This policy affects all Public Sector agencies. 

This evening we get to hear from West Midlands Police their latest plan to provide Policing across Walsall following further cuts in their budget.

We can only speculate ahead of the briefing what this might mean for the residents of Walsall. Whatever the news turns out to be one thing is certain, we are not going to see a growth in Police presence on our streets. Whatever the news is we’ll let you know over the coming days.

This latest plan by the Police is just one in a whole series of set backs for Public Sector partners here in Walsall in recent months. All are as a direct result of the Westminster Government’s continued austerity measures which are affecting Walsall’s NHS Trust, the Clinical Commissioning Group, Walsall Housing Group along with other social housing providers in Walsall and now the Police.

Individually these downward pressures on budgets are bad news when viewed in the light of the effect they have on their ability to maintain their services. “It’s the view of the Liberal Democrats on the Council that the Tories are using the austerity measures as a smoke screen to enable them to pursue their policy of small government pushing people towards self help” said Liberal Democrat Cllr Ian Shires.

Taken together puts each of these agencies under pressure to make cuts in their services which have a direct effect on their ability to play their part in delivering long term savings through partnership working. Good health, good housing, a job and a good local environment are all part of Walsall Partnership’s Prevention Plan which allows the pooling of resources for the greater good. Further cutbacks are putting at risk this vital work.

All this is taking place against a backdrop of Walsall Council’s preparations to put together a balanced budget for the tax year 2017/18. The current cost of running Walsall Council is around £630 million per year. £84 million has already been stripped out of the budget since 2010. The Tory Government wants to see a further £80 – £100 million taken from the budget by 2020. Council Tax raises around 15% of the annual budget, the rest comes from the Government and other agencies and has to be spent on specific things.

The new Labour/Liberal Democrat Coalition which took over the running of Walsall Council from the Tories following the elections in May this year needs to cut around £30 million from the budget for next year as part of a four year plan to reach the target of £80 – £100 million by 2020. A 1% rise in Council Tax equates to around £1 million. The Tory Government at Westminster has said that any rise in the level of Council Tax above 2% would have to be subject to a referendum.

If a 2% rise is the only one acceptable to the Council Tax payers of Walsall then the Council will need to find a further £28 million from cuts and what are euphemistically known as “efficiency savings”. The number of people working at Walsall Council has already reduced from around 10,000 to less than 3,000 leaving many services stretched to the limit.  On the other side of the coin we have Walsall Against the Cuts who don’t want any further cuts. This can be done but we can’t see Council Tax payers wanting to see a hike of 30% this coming year followed by a further 12% the next year and 13% the following year with a further increase of 24% in year 4.

The normal process is for the controlling group on the Council to come up with a Draft Budget by October which would then go out for “consultation”. The consultation process ends early February followed by  a debate at a Special Full Council later in February when the Council sets its Budget for the following tax year. Most people have a very cynical view when it comes to consultation. The view is that it’s a waste of time and that it doesn’t matter what they think the Council has already made up its mind.

The Liberal Democrats on the Council want to see all that changed. There should be a number of Council Tax increase options put to the people of the Borough. A series of conversations should then take place starting in late October and ending in late December. Whichever option is deemed the most acceptable at the end of this conversation should the option that goes to the Special Budget Council meeting in February.

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