Croydon Conservatives - Article From our Database

23 June 2006

Seeking a fair deal for Croydon

An open letter from the Leader of Croydon Council Our priority on winning control of Croydon Council in May’s election was to examine the books. We knew that the council’s finances weren’t in great shape but we didn’t know how bad they really were. What we’ve discovered is disappointing. And it isn’t solely the fault of our predecessors. The stark truth is that Croydon has been starved of Government funding. In recent times, the Government has shifted the cost of local services on to Croydon taxpayers without saying so. It uses highly complex formulae to work out how much councils receive from the Treasury. Changes to the methodology in the past couple of years have seen £400m diverted to other parts of the country at the expense of London councils, such as Croydon. As a result, there is chronic under-funding of Croydon Council services. The north-south divide is illustrated by the generosity with which somewhere like Sunderland is treated compared with Croydon. Sunderland receives an extra £188 per resident in Government funding. Were Croydon funded in the same way, that would amount to £64 million a year extra for local services or could be equivalent to halving our council tax bills. And there are differences within London, too. If Croydon received the same Government grant per resident as Ealing – a council which the independent watchdog, the Audit Commission, says is very similar to Croydon – we would have £40 million a year extra for local services, or council tax bills could be reduced by about a third. It cannot be fair that Croydon, with its own very diverse needs, should receive less Government grant per head of population than these other councils. The impact of the current state of affairs has been that you’ve seen your local services cut while your council tax has soared. In simple terms, you’ve been paying more for less. If Croydon received a fair deal, your council tax would be considerably lower and it would also be possible to invest more in local services. It’s very disappointing that our predecessors did not use their connections with the Government to get a better deal for Croydon. They kept the lid on the way Croydon was being mistreated. We’ll be doing everything possible to change this. But, for the time being, it looks pretty certain that, in order to spend in areas we know are priorities for you, we’ll have to find savings from less important activities. That isn’t going to be comfortable or palatable – but it’s absolutely necessary until we get the level of Government funding that Croydon needs and deserves; the council cannot spend beyond its means So, we’re not going to waste millions building a new pool at South Norwood when there’s a perfectly good centre that’s opened in the past couple of years at nearby Thornton Heath. Instead, a refurbishment will get the pool reopened much sooner and save £6 million straight away and £500,000 of interest payments every year. Nor are we going to replace every street light when many are perfectly adequate. What we are going to do is to take a serious look at priorities and make your council tax work hard for you. We’ll review every penny of spending and question whether the expense is really necessary. We’ve made a start by clamping down on recruitment and filling only essential posts. And we’ve recently let a contract to an external contractor to run our support services that will save £13 million over seven years. Over the coming weeks and months we’ll be scrutinising everything the council does in order to free up capacity to better do the things that really matter. And we’ll be inviting the whole council and residents to join us, publicly, in pressing the Government to give the people of Croydon a fair deal We have the figures that show Croydon has been discriminated against when it comes to handing out Government grant. We have the determination to stand up for Croydon and insist that our case for even-handed treatment is heard, acknowledged and results in the fair deal that will mean you can pay less and receive more. That’s what we promised and, with your help, that’s what we intend to deliver. Yours truly, Mike Fisher Leader, Croydon Council.