Residents forced to “cough up cash for Government mistakes”
County Durham Labour has torn into Coalition Budget proposals, labelling them “yet another raid on cash-strapped working families”.
Labour Deputy Leader, Cllr Rob Crute, claimed the Tory-led Coalition running the Council had set out a Budget that demanded people pay more for less services, while Labour Leader, Cllr Carl Marshall branded it “a failed Budget by a failed administration”.
The Budget, which will be discussed tomorrow (Wednesday 22 February) includes a string of controversial proposals, including the further cutting of key Council services, a general rise in fees and charges and a huge 5% hike in Council Tax.
The council faces a Budget shortfall of £52million over the next four years. The proposed Council Tax increase will see households in County Durham pay up to £90 a year more, at a time when many households are struggling with spiralling heating, food and energy bills.
Cllr Crute said:
“Why should residents pay more for less in return? It doesn’t take a genius to realise they are being told to cough up for someone else’s mistakes. Hard-pressed households in a cost of living crisis shouldn’t be burdened with another rise in bills simply to make up for the economic incompetence of a Tory government and a Tory-led Coalition.
“Labour is 100% opposed to this Budget. The Coalition talks about “unavoidable budget pressures”. What is “unavoidable”? A decade of savage austerity cuts unleashed by another unholy Tory-LibDem alliance? David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s chaotic prototype in 2010. Brutal austerity decimated communities and forced poor households to stump up for the errors of the rich. None of that was “unavoidable” – it was deliberate.
“The Tory government has been responsible for economic incompetence on an industrial scale, billions wasted in dodgy PPE contracts and test and trace system failures, the catastrophic “fiscal event” of last Autumn when Liz Truss saddled the nation with an additional £40 billion burden, crashed the pound through the floor and inflation and interest rates through the roof. Were these “unavoidable”?”
Cllr Crute will outline how the Council’s former Labour administration protected residents, keeping average Council Tax rises under 1% each year between 2010-2016, including three years at 0%. In comparison, the Coalition has hiked Council Tax by 8% in under two years.
He said the Coalition was “sending the bill for its government incompetence to the people of County Durham”, while it focused on undoing the work of the previous Labour administration.
He added:
“In 21 months of Coalition mismanagement we’ve seen money syphoned-off into a high-end, silver service restaurant in the old DLI Museum, the folly of plans to build three new council HQs, the fiasco of the failed Levelling-Up bids, and now the proposed council tax hike of 5%. Bad enough under any circumstances – but unconscionable at a time when households are suffering from the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
“We invite all members of the Council – Lib Dem, Independent or Green – to join us in rejecting the Coalition’s Budget. They can either line-up behind the Coalition and vote through a record 5% Council Tax hike. Or join us in standing up for the residents of County Durham who deserve much better than what they’re getting right now.”
Cllr Carl Marshall added:
“This Coalition has failed at everything apart its role as apologists for a failed Conservative government – in that, it’s been an incredible success.
“This is a failed Budget by a failed Council. A Budget to finish a job they started two years ago – upping fees, raising charges, hiking Council Tax…do Coalition councillors realise people can’t afford yet another raid on the piggy banks of working families. Do they care?
“We cannot and will not support a Budget that puts the squeeze on County Durham families. In rejecting it, I say to Cllr Hopgood, Cllr Bell, Cllrs Shield, Shuttleworth and Maddison – get your own house in order, instead of reaching into the pockets of hardworking families.
“And if you can’t run this Council properly, step aside and let Labour sort it out.”