An example of the damage done by ‘Big Society’ cuts
contribution by Councillor Joe McManners
We’ve heard that the ‘Big Society’ can take over community work as the state shrinks. We’ve also heard that the cuts actually may damage volunteerism and civic society.
Here’s a real life and pretty poignant example from my neck of the woods how these cuts are short termist, damaging and will damage civic society.
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Why the coalition’s take on localism is unsustainable
Contribution by Rick Muir
This government wears localism as a badge of pride: it says that the days of ministers dictating local service targets from Whitehall are over, and that it wants to move to a world where more power is exercised at the local level.
But the form of localism being pushed by the coalition is full of tensions and inconsistencies. For a start, while some powers are being pushed down, others are being sucked back up into government departments. In health, the Government has abolished Strategic Health Authorities – but much of what they were previously doing is now being done directly by the Department of Health. In education, the expansion of academy schools means that more and more local schools are being funded directly by Michael Gove rather than by local authorities.
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Govt plans council tax rises for poorest
It’s popcorn time for fans of joined up government as Eric Pickles and Iain Duncan Smith’s departments go to war over council tax benefit. Duncan Smith is attempting to simplify the benefits system, while Pickles is planning to let every local council set its own rules on who gets council tax benefit, thus making the system more complicated and increasing the risk that people are better off on benefits than working. As usual, if Pickles wins, the losers are likely to be people on low incomes. continue reading… »
What should progressive councils be doing now?
Contribution by Cllr Michael Desmond
There has been little room for philosophy during the recent mayhem of council cuts, budget reductions and staff lay-offs. The nearest thing has been Barnet Council’s unedifying dalliance with budget airline theory, the controversial “easyCouncil”, where only bare essentials are done and costs restrained, which saw planners on strike yesterday.
Some Tory flagship authorities have combined back-room roles to limit administrative costs, and Labour councils have juggled meagre settlements to limit and in some cases avoid, cuts to front-line services. Of course, this is by no means the first time local authorities have had to face the music; but we haven’t seen anything like the savage climate induced by Eric Pickles’ hatchet since the 1970s.
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How I’m trying to stop library cuts in Camden
contribution by Cllr Tulip Siddiq
I very rarely cry. It’s just not me. But attending the ‘We Love Highgate Library’ day and being greeted by children standing in the cold with banners proclaiming their love for their local library made me feel a bit teary.
Julian Barnes dramatically declared that he would go down on one knee to stop me from making cuts. Danny Scheinmann interrupted me with a copy of his book Random Acts of Heroic Love. ‘I’ve inscribed it for you Councillor Siddiq’ he said (‘Always do the right thing’ it said).
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Spending cuts across London councils hit Labour hardest: a comparison
contribution by Anjum Klair
Councils in London have started to pass their financial budgets, and further councils in London will decide on how to make savings in the coming days as a result of the funding reductions they are facing from Central Government.
The chart below, produced from Government figures, gives more detail about the relative scale of cuts across London Boroughs and also shows that poorer boroughs with high deprivation levels – like Islington, Haringey, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham – are among the hardest hit in London.
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Lessons from the council budget controversy in Hackney last night
Last night Hackney Council passed a budget with £44 million of cuts, amidst protests from anti-cuts campaigners. Having looked at their budget, I think councillors have done very well in extremely difficult situation.
There is an irony in watching protesters who say all political parties are just the same with one breath, while with the next protesting against the Tory/Lib Dem decision to end Labour’s policy of giving more money to the most deprived areas.
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Five more ways for the Left to engage with Labour council cuts
The first part of my synopsis has drawn a hostile response, and that’s predictable enough. I didn’t enjoy saying it much, but I’m only trying to establish properly where we find ourselves.
In this part, I want to move on to five more reasons why we should support Labour councils making cuts, but in a way which I hope provides some strategic insight as to how we can resist more effectively in the future.
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‘Free Councils’ will increase inequality across the country
contribution by Dan McCurry
It seems Vince Cable has begun his political-fight back following his damaging “nuclear” remarks by proving that he can be more right-wing than the Tories. Today in the Guardian: “Free councils to keep bulk of cash raised through business rates. Richer boroughs will no longer see income from their businesses going to subsidise poorer parts of the country.”
A government minister said, “They will be free councils, and the idea is that they have a real incentive for the first time to encourage business in their locality.”
However this takes no account of the natural tendency for cities to develop separate business and residential areas, with workers commuting between the two.
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Six lessons for campaigners fighting local council cuts
I’ve been following the fractious discussions about what anti-cuts campaigners should do when Labour councils make cuts.
I thought it might be worth writing up some of the learning from the local anti-cuts campaigns which I’ve been working on. Many of you will have worked on similar campaigns and may have your own ideas, proposals and experiences.
But here are six lessons I would offer anti-cuts campaigners.
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Four reasons why broader opposition to the cuts matters
contribution by Jon Stone
Yesterday, Paul Cotterill outlined five reasons why “the Left” should accept local public service cuts made by Labour councils.
At the risk of everyone talking past each other, I won’t address the points he made, which are being debated in the comments thread and on Twitter. Instead, here are four reasons why it is still worth opposing Labour council cuts.
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Five reasons why the Left should accept Labour council cuts
We are in the midst of a three week period many when many Labour councils are setting their budgets. All of them will make cuts.
Labour councillors up and down the country will receive abuse for what many on the left will see as their betrayal and cowardice. This is the first part of an unashamedly detailed article on why such abuse is both unjustified and counterproductive.
Labour councils and the broad left should be coming together to bash out a better way forward than the Tory-pleasing acrimony currently developing.
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People battle hard to save council services across the country
At the start of last week, I was surprised by what I felt was a relatively quiet national political and press response to the battles that were raging at council meetings as people protested about council cuts.
The BBC spoke to me about using some of my stuff for segments on cuts last week, and there have been stories here and there on protests.
Nonetheless, I think the depth of the conflicts at council meetings deserves a lot more reporting – saturation, even. I’d also like to see public outrage at local service cuts championed publicly by Eds Miliband and Balls. Daily. Hourly, even.
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There isn’t a clear separation between state and private money in the real society
contribution by James Mills
On Saturdays I help run a community football project in West London, around the corner from my old school. It was started eight years ago and is multi-faith, multi-racial and ranges from teenagers to adult men in their thirties. No national or local government edict decided that this should be created.
Nevertheless, the environment for such a scheme to blossom was due to easy access to a public park we use which is maintained and kept by the local council and as long as the local council keep doing so, and there is enough interest, it will keep going.
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Why Libdems should welcome the revolt by local councillors
contribution by Sue Marsh
The news yesterday that 17 council leaders and 71 local party heads spoke out against the devastating 28% local authority cuts should be celebrated, not opposed by the Liberal Democrats.
I firmly believe that if indeed the public did vote for a coalition, then this is what they expected. When something seemed wrong, I think they wanted one or the other party to oppose it. Not destructively but passionately. Not to harm the government, but to strengthen it.
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Labour councils and the cuts: grotesque chaos is back
Maybe Manchester council didn’t hire taxis to scuttle round the city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers, a crime for which former Labour leader Neil Kinnock famously berated Liverpool’s local authority in his 1985 conference speech.
Then again, I don’t suppose the 2,000 Mancunians who are losing their jobs are any happier about it just because they learned their fate through the post. What is happening to them must surely rate as ‘grotesque chaos’ too, as Kinnock might have put it.
Work with us to stop Pickles, say Labour councillors today
A government source confirms to The Times (£) that Eric Pickles’ relationship with local councils has become dysfunctional.
They hate him and he hates them.
As a result, LibDem council leaders have asked Nick Clegg to step in so that they don’t have to deal with the Tory Community Secretary.
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Big Society is in tatters at Pickles’ favourite council
contribution by Andy Slaughter MP
Conservative-run Hammersmith & Fulham Council, known as “Cameron’s favourite Council”, was described as the “apple of his eye” by Eric Pickles two weeks ago in Parliament.
Its Cabinet is meeting today to rubber-stamp the sale of four major community hubs in the face of opposition from tens of thousands of local residents.
This is an act of cultural vandalism by the Council.
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How Labour’s Movement for Change got this retiree involved in campaigning
contribution by Marion Maxwell
I was delighted to hear the news that Movement for Change will be being continued and expanded to bring community organising back to the Labour movement. My community and I have already benefitted from some of the methods that M4C wants to equip all party members with.
One of the first actions of the government was to cancel the creation of Norwich Unitary council, one of the consequences being that we were forced into a by-election in September 2010. I was selected as Labour candidate for the Mancroft Ward, a Green Party stronghold, and deemed difficult to win by the Labour Party.
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Why the Big Society will be as dead as a Dodo
I’m on the board of a local charity, which deals in ‘conflict resolution’. Basically, it reaches out to young kids in areas where there is tension (gangs, racial tension, religious etc) and gets them involved in activity to deal with that tension. It also does a lot of local community work with people of different backgrounds.
Its also teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, thanks to funding being slashed at local councils, schools and grant donors. Several other charities and local community organisations in the area have already gone bust.
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