Labour Group Budget approved at Full Council

Cllr Shabir Pandor, Leader of Kirklees Council highlights the key points from our budget that was approved at Full Council

Kirklees Budget 2019 – Cllr Uppal’s Speech to Council

Thank you Madam Mayor. Can I firstly thank Officers, the Cabinet and the Leader for their work on the Budget.

I also want thank all our council teams and staff across the Borough. Our staff and teams are seeing the reality of austerity and the cuts.

They have faced increasing pressures on their services, resources and budgets and that means it’s not always been easy for them.  I want to thank them for all they do.

I do want to start off by saying something about the Local Government Financial Settlement. It is hitting the poorest and the most vulnerable the hardest.

The Government and the Tories in this room may say they are putting more money into local government - about £1.3bn in core spending power but over £1billion will be cut from the core government grant. And a lot of this additional funding is one off bits of money – we need a much more long term settlement and that is still missing.

Government Ministers have taken more out of the Communities and Local Government Department thank any other – leaving local areas to pick up the pieces.

After a decade of cuts you can’t say there are no consequences because of that.

The shortfall of funding in social care is impacting hospital admissions.

With homelessness figures rising the government has finally realised there is a problem but this has meant local welfare provision teams have been inundated and housing officers have been dealing with increasing pressures of homelessness and rough sleeping.

If we look at rising violent crime Sajid Javid and the Home Office have realised that we need more police officers on the beat and have kindly said we can pay for it by increasing the council tax precept.

And of course youth services have been impacted and we know what can happen when there is a void.

From 2020, Ministers no longer want to take account of deprivation when it comes to funding. We are already facing unfair cuts with Kirklees facing more drastic cuts than the likes of Surrey and Maidenhead.

House of Commons Library figures on core spending power show Kirklees, deprivation rank, 94 has faced a cut of core spending power of £420 per household while the Prime Minister’s local authority, Windsor and Maidenhead, deprivation rank 306 faced a core spending power cut of £205 per household.

It is a fact, unfortunately, that you are likely to die younger if you are poorer and we know in Kirklees we have an average life expectancy gap (between the most and least affluent areas) of 9 years.

The Government’s own research shows deprivation is one of the best predictors of the cost of basic services. So I really don’t understand what they are doing. It is really shocking.

We also have a 1 year budget because we don’t know how local government will be funded going forward. There are too many uncertainties with the fair funding review and spending review.

What do the cuts mean in reality?

increasing numbers of children in temporary accommodation

more request for social care support and child protection orders every day

and bus routes lost to communities across our borough

But despite all of this, Councils like ours are doing some great work. I am encouraged by our focus on placed based initiatives, additional funding for mental health initiatives and domestic abuse services and the investment in dementia services and youth provision.  I believe Labour councils like ours will make a difference for our communities.

Kirklees Budget 2019 – Cllr Khan’s Speech to Council

The long term sustainable funding for adult social care remains an urgent issue within the context of continued cuts to Local Authority budgets by this Tory Government – Theresa May might have declared an end to austerity but it isn’t evident here in Kirklees or other boroughs up and down the country!

According to the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Government has cut £7billion from social care budgets in England since 2010. Nationally and locally we have a growing crisis in services for elderly and disabled people which creates additional pressures on the NHS.

In Kirklees adult social care we have a funding gap of £25m over the next 3 years, due to increasing demand led pressures and cost pressures, these are a key budget risk for the council.

Short-term government funding such as the adult social care precept and Better Care Funding is not sustainable and it will not be possible to close the funding gap unless core permanent funding is found from a national perspective.

There is a target of £4m cuts in 2018/19 for adult social care, alongside an expected volume growth totalling £3.6m. This is in context of continued austerity and a further £29m of cuts to Kirklees Council over the next two years. According to the LGA, nationally adult social care services face a £4.3 billion funding gap by 2020.

The publication of the Social Care Green Paper which promises a long term sustainable funding plan has been delayed several times: from an original publication date of Summer 2017. It is disappointing that the NHS Plan had not been accompanied by the Social Care Green Paper. The NHS and social care sector are interlinked. Social care needs to be robust and sustainable for us to support the NHS to deliver safe and effective services.

The Labour vision is for a fully-funded high quality social care system which prevents hospital admissions and frees up hospital beds to reduce the current record NHS waiting times.

Kirklees Public Health has lost £3.5m since 2016/2017, with further cuts planned for the coming year. For the first time ever since records began we have seen a reduction in life expectancy, particularly amongst women living in the most deprived areas. The healthy life expectancy between someone living in a more affluent area in Kirklees can differ by up to 9 years in comparison to someone living in a deprived area. Addressing health inequalities is crucial if we are to reduce the adult social care bill and alleviate pressures on the NHS.

1 in 3 adults in Kirklees has a mental health condition, up from 1 in 5 in 2012. We are seeing increasing number of people presenting in mental health crisis who have previously had not any contact with mental health services. This is a worrying trend. Contributing factors in the rise in mental health concerns are pressures on household finances, cuts in welfare, zero hour contracts and so forth, driving individuals and families into debt and despair. For these reasons the Labour Group propose to invest over £1.4 m to launch a range of ground breaking mental health initiatives; this includes £400k for domestic abuse.

In line with our commitment to ensure every child has the best start in life and that people feel safe and protected from harm, we will invest in domestic violence services. Over the next two years we will also invest in sexual health and substance misuse services.

Madame Mayor, the Labour budget is centred on the needs of our residents and puts the wellbeing of people at the heart of everything we do and I am pleased to commend it to the council.

Kirklees Budget 2019 – Cllr Pandor's Speech to Council

This is Cllr Shabir Pandor’s speech as Leader of the Council:

Madam Mayor, Council; I am proud to be able to present this budget to you today.

This is a budget that protects the vulnerable, invests in our young people and rejuvenates our infrastructure.

This is a budget that signals a change of course for our citizens – one that sends not just a message of hope, but real, practical steps to improve the lives of people across Kirklees.

 We can do this because of the solid foundations we have built over the past two years:

We’ve delivered savings

We’ve protected the reserves 

We’ve lived within our means

Let me be clear why we’ve had to live within our means; why we have had to make substantial savings.

Local government has come under sustained attack from this Government and the previous Tory-led coalition. 

We have lost 60 p in every one pound of funding over the past decade.

It is a fact that those councils with the highest levels of deprivation have been hit the hardest by national funding changes.

Don’t take my word for it; these are the words of Lord Porter, the Conservative chair of the Local Government Association – and I quote –

“The money local government has to provide vital services is running out fast, and huge uncertainty remains about how councils will pay for services into the next decade and beyond.

“If the government fails to adequately fund local government then it will be our local communities and economies who will suffer the consequences.

“It will be those who rely on vital adult social care to live independent lives, rural bus routes to get out and about, council tax support to ease financial burdens, and those who value clean streets, green spaces and roads.

“The Spending Review will be make or break for vital local services and securing the financial sustainability of councils must be the top priority.”

That’s the Conservative chair of the LGA.

Austerity is a political choice, and thousands of Kirklees residents have suffered, as a result.  This Labour administration will challenge that, head on.

We have listened to and worked with our communities to understand their priorities.

We have examined every budget line and stretched every pound left available to us.

But austerity has had a devastating effect on key public services that provide protection to the most vulnerable members of our society – children at risk, disabled adults and older people who require support, and the many families who are barely getting by despite being in work.

That’s why we’ve worked hard on this budget to change that narrative of despair, not with false promises, but with practical steps – sometimes small steps – that will begin, within weeks, to improve the lives of many of our residents.

This Council remains one of the lowest funded Councils; second lowest of the 36 metropolitan authorities and in the lower quartile nationally.

The combined impact of national funding reductions and service pressures on the Council has resulted in a cumulative revenue savings requirement of £199m over the 2010-2019 period.

As noted in the Budget Report, the forecast budget gap, by 2020, could be anywhere between £6 million and £46 million, based on current, best estimates.

Existing Council budget plans for 2018-20 included planned savings of £16.2 million in 2018-19 and a further £13.2 million in 2019-20.

But these savings cannot, WILL NOT, fall on the most vulnerable.

The Council’s current Corporate Plan 2018-20 acknowledges the scale of financial challenges to date, and the tough decisions that have had to be taken to balance the books while protecting frontline services and our most vulnerable residents.

Let’s remind ourselves of that plan’s vision: 

“a district which combines a strong, sustainable economy with a great quality of life – leading to thriving communities, growing businesses, high prosperity and low inequality where people enjoy better health throughout their lives.”  

It also recognises that to support this approach, it has also required the development of a different type of organisation with new and innovative ways of doing things; changing the way that we work with communities, keeping vulnerable people safe and in control of their own lives, and focusing on the things that only the Council can do.

Let me go into some detail, in terms of the timescale and priorities.

This is a budget for one year.  But it is no less ambitious for that. Ambitious for growth – building our council tax base and business rates. Let me explain why one year:

These are uncertain times and not just because of the chaos of Brexit.

There is uncertainty about the content of the Spending Review - even within the Prime Minister’s Cabinet!

It would be fiscally foolish to create a longer-term budget when we have a government and a prime minister that is in office but not in power.

So, we have shored up our financial position, but -let’s be honest - at the expense of investment in the borough.

The budget includes a suggested 2.99 per cent increase in council tax (excluding fire, police and parish council precepts), which would allow a further £5.2 million of investment.

Investment that:

Protects the vulnerable, creating the best services we can for older people, especially those living with dementia and/or coping with disabilities; this includes investment of £1.9 million to support mental health service provision – plus £400,000 for measures to tackles domestic abuse.

Investment that strengthens our commitment to children and young people; putting money into high needs, children’s improvement, youth provision and play areas; an investment of £6 million revenue and £45 million capital.

This is an investment that will rejuvenate our infrastructure. We can all see, after nearly a decade of austerity, that our infrastructure needs attention. That’s why we’re beginning a programme of investment in our roads system.

But we also need to revitalise the places where people live and work, and not just our major towns, but our smaller towns and villages too; that’s why, today, I can announce a total investment of around £210 million.

Madam Mayor. These are challenging times for those of us who work in local government, whether as elected members or officers.

But those challenges are as nothing compared to the hurdles faced by too many of our fellow citizens.

I will not shirk my duty to deliver a budget that lives within its means. But my administration has been clear to the officers of the council, that we must now rebuild and rejuvenate our communities.

This is a year of ambition for Kirklees; its people, place and partners.

Madam Mayor: Let’s show our citizens, through our deeds and actions, that this Labour majority administration in Kirklees will begin a period of renewal.

I commend this Budget to this Council and to the good people of Kirklees

Kirklees - Need to make further cuts

Since austerity became the mantra of choice by first the coalition, then the Tories we have had year on year cuts. Despite every economic think tank and every respected accounting body saying it is not working, the Tories are sticking to their devastating policy.
Evidence abounds from other economies, the most graphic being Portugal and Iceland (Iceland never embraced Austerity and Portugal abandoned it) both have seen their economies grow and their deficit decrease.
The current government policy, as admitted by the current chancellor, is not about economics but about an attack on the public sector, because they enjoy it.

Kirklees Our Budget Challenge

Kirklees - How our Funding is Changing

Kirklees - What we spend our money on.

CRISIS CONTINUED

FUNDING CRISIS TORY SPEAKS OUT

Hot on the trail of Surry Council (Conservative) voting for a 15% rise the Conservative Chair of the Local Government Association, unlike our conservative councillors is willing to speak out.

LGA chairman Lord Porter said: “If councils stopped filling in potholes, maintaining parks and open spaces, closed all children’s centres, libraries, museums, leisure centres, turned off every street light and shut all discretionary bus routes they would not have saved enough money to plug this gap by the end of the decade.”

Budget 2016: Income Tax Cuts Will See Richest Benefit By £250 And Poorest Less Than £10

Budget 2016: Income Tax Cuts Will See Richest Benefit By £250 And Poorest Less Than £10

This graph shows why one of George Osborne's flagship tax cuts in the Budget will disproportionately benefit the well off.


The Chancellor announced two cuts to income tax.
- From April 6, 2017, people will be able to earn £11,500 before they start to pay tax.
- The threshold at which 40 per cent income tax kicks will rise to £45,000.

The Resolution Foundation think-tank has found the poorest - on the far left - stand to benefit by less than £10 while the richest - on the far right - are in line for a boost of more than £250.
It calculates that 80% of gains go to the top half of earners - and almost half (47%) to the top fifth.
The Chancellor announced two cuts to income tax.
- From April 6, 2017, people will be able to earn £11,500 before they start to pay tax.
- The threshold at which 40 per cent income tax kicks will rise to £45,000.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/graeme-demianyk

Kirklees - WHERE WE ARE FINANCIALLY

WHERE WE ARE FINANCIALLY

note no reference to paddles present or not

 

As budgets change and we are subjected to Cabinet double talk (and double counting) it is useful to try to put it in simple terms as to where we are financially. To compare where we were in 2010, where we are now and where we will be in 2019.

 

Obviously it is not as simple as just looking at the base numbers as “demand” for our services, such as the number of people we are looking after, changes over time. So the increase in demand line is added so we compare like with like.

 

We are also only looking at the budgets we have control over, excluding for example school spending.

 

The Net Budget for 2010 was for Kirklees £340m

 

Demand up to 2015 increased that to £396m (what we would have needed to stand still.)

 

Through cuts to budgets we reduced that by £83m reducing by a further £12m by using balances.

 

So by 2015 our annual budget was £301m

 

Over the next four years we estimate that because of the growth in demand to stand still we will need £426m to stand still

 

What we will have with the council tax the government allow us to collect, and the decreased grant they give us to deliver services on their behalf (e.g. nationally set care levels), will be £261m

 

To put it simply we by 2019 will have had to have made cuts of £165m or the council will not be able to set a balanced budget and will be bankrupt.

George Osborne’s £13bn Fiddle

George Osborne’s £13bn ‘northern powerhouse’ fund includes routine council spending on potholes

Embarrassment for government as it confirms only £5bn of announced £13bn funding is allocated for major road schemes and £3bn for rail £5bn of the claimed £13bn fund is made up of the standard allocations to local councils for road maintenance and traffic schemes.

Daniel Boffey Policy editor

Sunday 5 July 2015

George Osborne’s pledge to build a “northern powerhouse” has been condemned as “cynical pre-election spin” as it emerged that the £13bn committed to build it includes routine spending on potholes and maintenance for the A1, which comes out of London.

In further embarrassment, a communities minister was also accused of misleading parliament over the money after he claimed to MPs in the Commons last week that the government was “investing £13bn in rail in the north” for “more trains, newer trains and more regular journeys”. A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has now confirmed that the money is not just for rail.

Before the general election, the chancellor made much of his intention to “make the cities of the north a powerhouse for our economy again – with new transport and science and powerful city governance”, in what was seen as an attempt to steal votes from Labour in its strongholds and in tight marginals such as Crewe.

In a press release in March, the Treasury claimed: “To make the northern powerhouse a reality, the government has already committed to … £13bn of investment in transport in the north of England”. In parliament last week, communities minister James Wharton said: “This government is investing £13bn in rail in the north. There will be more trains, newer trains and more regular journeys.”

It has now emerged, however, that only £3bn of that money is for rail schemes – of which £1.35bn had already been allocated, mainly to upgrades in and around Manchester.

Only £5bn of the remaining £10bn is for major road schemes, including the improvements to the A1. And the remaining £5bn is made up of the standard allocations to local councils through the “Integrated Transport Block Capital Grant” for projects such as bus lanes, cycle lanes, and traffic-calming and “local highways maintenance”, including filling in potholes.

The outstanding £1.65bn for rail works out at £330m a year until 2020, for all of the north-east, Yorkshire and the north-west. Local politicians claim such amounts will prove too little to make any major infrastructure improvements.

Andy Burnham, the MP for Leigh in Greater Manchester and the frontrunner in the Labour leadership contest, called for an apology from the DCLG for misleading MPs. He said: “David Cameron must look at whether ministers have knowingly misled the Commons. George Osborne’s much-vaunted northern powerhouse has been exposed for what it is: cynical, pre-election spin. It is getting the same from the Tories that it’s always had: a northern powercut.

“If Osborne’s commitment to the north is to have any credibility, he must put his money where his mouth is and listen to long-suffering rail passengers. As Labour leader, I will devolve power to local communities and put them in the driving seat of transport planning.”

The latest embarrassment over the northern powerhouse claim follows the announcement that the government had shelved promised and vital upgrades to major rail lines in the Midlands and the north of England, just weeks after the election in which the Conservatives campaigned on rebalancing the country. Critics claimed that the government knew that those plans, central to the northern powerhouse vision, would have to be shelved a long time before the general election but had avoided announcing it for fear of losing votes.

A DCLG spokesman said: “The northern powerhouse is part of the government’s long-term economic plan to rebalance growth across the regions and nations of the UK.

“The northern powerhouse is more than transport investment. Government has committed to invest in science and technology, transport, digital and innovation, culture and tourism across the region. Alongside devolving power, this gives the north a powerful new voice.”

Kirklees Lib-Dem Myth Buster #1: Free town bus

At Budget Council on 18 February, it seems the Kirklees Lib-Dems got a little confused on a number of things. One of the those was the debate regarding the Free Town Bus.

Labour Councillor, Eric Firth, clearly outlined to Council that in his capacity as a member of the WYCA Transport Committee he was working with Metro and was confident a solution could be found that helps retain a service that assists so many people to get around town to do their shopping, supporting those individuals' continued independence and the trade to town centre shops.

So it seems a little odd that Lib-Dem Cllr Christine Iredale, posted the following on Twitter:

Firstly, it must be asked if Cllr Iredale actually listened to what Cllr Firth said, as her tweet clearly suggests she didn't. The second tweet simply takes a Lib-Dem defeatist view of something they supposedly hold dear, and maybe they should have welcomed Cllr Firth's position of continuing to work and negotiate with the bus company.

The Kirklees Labour view is that Cllr Iredale did listen and understand what was said, but along with her Lib-Dem colleagues would rather scaremonger the public than work with others on a solution. You would also think that her Lib-Dem colleague Cllr Andrew Pinnock, also a member of the WYCA Transport Committee, would have been the perfect route to make this positive contribution. It seems not!
 

Care crisis will divert £1 billion

CARE CRISIS WILL DIVERT £1 Billion

 The escalating cost of caring for the elderly means councils will have to divert £1.1 billion from other services like fixing potholes, new analysis shows. Councils in England will see their core government funding cut by 8.8 per cent in 2015/16, following the Local Government Finance Settlement.
 However, the LGA has warned that cuts for services the majority of people use are likely to be much bigger because local authorities will have to find extra money from shrinking budgets to meet the rising cost of caring for the elderly and disabled.
  Analysis shows that in the next financial year (2015/16) councils will have to find £1.1 billion from other service budgets to continue protecting adult social care spending in cash terms. It follows a £900 million hit taken by other services to help plug adult social care funding last year.
The analysis is based on current spending patterns, which show councils have consistently been protecting spending on adult social care at a time when the elderly population continues to rise and local services have faced the biggest and most sustained cuts in funding since the war.
 The LGA is warning that if the crisis in adult social care funding is not addressed, councils will have little money left for any other services by the end of the decade.
 Chair Cllr David Sparks said: "Even with councils pulling out the stops to shield social care from the cuts, our vulnerable elderly and disabled are seeing some support scaled back and waiting times grow when they press the call button.
 "It is not enough for government to keep plastering over the cracks with short term fixes. We urgently need a longer term solution that puts social care on a sustainable footing. Failure to do so will deprive our elderly of the care they deserve, create additional pressure on the NHS and push other local services over the edge".

From Local Government Association

ALL WE WANT IS EQUAL TREATMENT

ALL WE WANT IS EQUAL TREATMENT

Robert Light, the leader of the Kirklees Capitalists, claims that the cuts to Kirklees and the shifting of money down south is justified because when he lead Kirklees the Labour Government gave Kirklees too much money. Diddie David (the Robin to Bobbies Batmen) will no doubt claim it is our fault that the greedy Capitalist Bankers lent money to farmers in the mid west of America who had no chance of repaying, and that greedy Capitalist Bankers were allowed to sell the debt to even greedier Capitalist Bankers in the City of London. (The same Capitalist Bankers who have their bonuses vigorously protected by the Capitalist part of the co-alition)

 

But all that aside, what we are asking for, is as Eric Pickles has voluntiered Local Government to take the blame and more than the Lions share of the cuts, could he not at least treat the people of the North the same way he treats his neighbours in the affluent south (where the Greedy Capitalist Bankers live).

 

Kirklees have lost £174 per head – Brentwood – where Mr Pickles lives have loss £95.(Counting District and County Robert, so your other daft argument you made in council is also busted) If Kirkleeshad had the same cuts as Brentwood we would have an extra £33 million each and every year to spend.

David Sheard’s vision for the future of Kirklees

Cllr Sheard, Leader, Kirklees Council, published in Dewsbury Reporter

Kirklees Council leader David Sheard has shed some light on what services might look like over the next few years as the council faces cuts of £69m.

He said that early intervention, combined efforts and community involvement were the tools that would keep Kirklees from going completely bankrupt.

He said: “The agenda isn’t really about what the council is going to keep on doing and stop doing, it’s about changing the way the council works altogther. If we don’t change what we’re doing in terms of looking after older people and protecting children then the numbers mean that by 2021 we would be bankrupt because we would be able to afford nothing else than to look after them.”

He said breakfast clubs at schools in disadvantaged areas could give children a better chance at a decent education and that better broadband access would help to connect people to the world. Snow clearance and salt spreading could also by devolved to residents, street by street.

And Coun Sheard said loneliness was a recurring theme with older people and that contributing to the running of a library could help to combat the problem while keeping the service open.

“It could be that some of the things we have to change could open things up to people that weren’t available before,” he said.

“We can provide things if we provide them in a different way. The cuts are too big to say ‘Let’s just salami slice here and cut this bit off here’, we are way past that.

This article was written by James Carney, and published online in the Dewsbury Reporter, 7 October. You can view the entire article here.