Cllr Stephen Knight's Council budget speech 2010 (Twickenham & Richmond Liberal Democrats)

Cllr Stephen Knight's Council budget speech 2010

March 3, 2010 5:45 PM

Formula Grant per head: London Boroughs. Richmond is the lowest: For 2010/11, Central Government support for non-school services within Richmond equals £150 per resident; the Outer London borough average is £404.

• [Mar 02] Cllr Stephen Knight: ' . . I AM pleased to confirm that we are able to set a budget that maintains our services without needing any increase in Council Tax . . '

Madam Mayor, This is the fourth budget speech I have delivered on behalf of the administration since 2006. In the first of those speeches I promised a sustainable approach to the council's finances. I promised that we would keep Council Tax rises to the minimum needed to sustain public services. Our aim was to keep Council Tax increases down to broadly inflationary levels and below 5% in any one year. We have delivered on both of these promises - Council Tax in 2010 will remain broadly at the same level in 'real terms' as it was four years ago in 2006 - the first time this has been achieved in the history of Council Tax in the borough.

We have achieved this whilst improving council services and directing unprecedented levels of new investment at priority areas:

1: Areas such as our secondary schools, half of which are being rebuilt or refurbished and all of which have benefited from extra funding to raise standards.

2: Huge investment is being directed into our primary schools, to ensure they can provide for the ever growing numbers of families with young children in our borough.

3: We have directed extra investment into tackling climate change and improving facilities for cycling, walking and car-clubs

4: We have invested both money and surplus council land in new affordable housing for local families in need.

5: We have found the resources to support and improve the five areas of relative disadvantage in our otherwise affluent borough.

6: We have year on year put extra resources into care services for older and vulnerable residents.

7: We have transformed the recycling services in the borough to make it one of the most comprehensive in the UK, with one of the highest recycling rates in London.

8: We have year on year increased funding for Looked after children and to support children with special educational needs

9: With new investment, we have transformed services for young people, with improved youth clubs, youth engagement, and new leisure facilities springing up all over the borough.

10: We have also responded to the recession with a range of initiatives to help local residents and local employers cope in the downturn.

Madam Mayor, we have done all this against the background of falling government grants and a recession that has hit many of our income streams over the past year. We have achieved all this because of the imagination, talent and dedication of our staff who work for the council serving local residents. They have continued to deliver more and better services for less, year after year and we all owe them a huge debt of gratitude on behalf of our residents. It is because of them that in the course of the last four years we have won top marks from the Audit Commission as a '4-star, improving strongly' council and that we won one of the highest 'value for money' ratings in the county. It is in no small part because of the services they, together with our partners such as the NHS and police, deliver, that residents rate the borough as the best place to live in the country.

Madam Mayor, Over the past year we have been through a terrible recession. Unemployment in the borough, although relatively low, has risen sharply and many people are facing a reduced income or are fearful of losing their jobs. This year, at a time when household budgets are already squeezed, I am pleased to confirm that we are able to set a budget that maintains our services without needing any increase in Council Tax.

A number of factors have made this possible

1: We have recently finished paying for the Civic Centre, built 25 years ago and so have no further financing payments.

2: In addition, recent investment in the Civic Centre and in our IT systems has increased the capacity of the building and will enabling us to give up leases on other buildings such as Regal House - which in due course will save us money on rent.

3: Local government staff are taking some of the strain this year as it has been determined nationally that there will be no annual pay rise.

4: We have also made a large number of further savings and efficiencies across the council.

All these savings are funding growth in a number of key areas:

1: We are putting extra money into care services for older and vulnerable people

2: There is more going into children's services

3: The cost of disposing of our waste in landfill continues to escalate

4: The cost to the council of the Freedom Pass that provides free transport for older people has risen very sharply since last year

5: We are also financing our ambitious capital programme of school buildings, especially the numerous primary expansion projects around the borough.

Madam Mayor, we have had no help from central government in meeting any of these growing costs, and our pitiful grant funding is being cut again in 'real terms' with an increase of just 87p per resident for the year. I wrote to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham in early December to press him for a fairer deal for our borough. My letter set out in considerable detail how the government's funding formula fails to properly address the needs of areas like Richmond upon Thames. It explained that we get less than £150 a year per resident from central government - less than any other borough - compared to the outer London average of over £400 a head. Neighbouring Wandsworth for example gets over £500 a head. This means that our residents have to pay one of the highest Council Taxes in the country, despite having an efficient, low-spending council.

The response took almost six weeks, was delegated to a junior minister, and was somewhat briefer than my three pages. In fact it was brief enough for me to read to you now: I quote: "Please be assured that your comments along with all the others received during the consultation period will be carefully considered when the final decisions on the provisional settlement are made. " This was written on Friday 15th January. There followed a weekend and three whole days of so-called 'careful consideration' by government ministers before they announced on 21st January that they were going to completely ignore our case.

Madam Mayor, if the government wasn't willing to help us this year then we can expect even worse to come in the future. The collapse of tax revenues from the financial sector has left the government having to borrow heavily to support spending on public services. In order to address this ongoing deficit in the public finances, it is likely that the government will, sooner or later, start very significant funding cuts across the public sector. The challenge ahead is how we protect our services in the face of these severe funding cuts. To prepare for this challenge we are already working with staff to develop a strategy to save up to £15 million over the next three years focusing on greater efficiency rather than service cuts. This will not be easy, but I can assure you that we will leave no stone unturned in the quest for efficiency in order to protect services for local residents over the years ahead.

Madam Mayor, We cannot be complacent about the local economic recovery and therefore it is right that this budget includes sensible measures to boost demand through increased investment and tax restraint. I have already referred to the unprecedented level of investment we are sustaining through our capital programme and the Council Tax freeze that I am asking you to agree tonight will go some way to helping local household budgets and giving residents a little more in their pockets to spend in the local economy.

But at this difficult time we also have a duty also to help mitigate some of the serious social impacts of the recession on our residents. I have already referred to the many initiatives that we are taking with our partners to help residents and local employers at this difficult time. To resource this work, we have already established a 'recession recovery' fund of some quarter of a million pounds. But tonight I can announce our intention to significantly increase the funding available for this work. We intend to allocate additional funding, both from the Local Authority Business Growth Incentives scheme and from budget underspends in the current year. These measures will create a fund of 1 million pounds, available to help local residents through the bad times.

One group of residents who are facing a particularly difficult time ahead is the young people who leave college or university this summer. Many will find their first step on the career ladder extremely difficult, especially as many who graduated last summer are still looking for jobs. To offer some help to this whole generation of local young people, we intend to use a significant proportion of our million pound fund on a plan to help them make that first step onto the ladder. We intend to work with local employers to develop a scheme that will offer hundreds of young people high quality work experience internships to give them interesting and relevant work experience. Work experience that will give their careers a kick start and help introduce our local employers to a new generation of potential new recruits.

Madam Mayor, Taken together, this budget and the measures I have outlined this evening are a serious response to the serious economic situation our borough faces today. It is a budget for recovery and I commend it to the Council.

Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats: