With ongoing poor decision-making, mounting debts and overspending – is it any wonder the Government is taking its time on Labour’s bailout request?
With the publication of this year’s budget papers, the true cost of the Labour Council’s financial incompetence is becoming alarmingly clear.
The details of the latest financial figures which have been published are truly shocking and show how Labour has until now been hiding away details that they didn’t want us to see. They have clearly been utterly incapable of grasping the simple fact that you need to live within your means and that you cannot spend money that you don’t have.
Labour cabinet members, well paid from the public purse, have been overseeing departments which have been regularly overspending and there has been a complete lack of financial oversight or control.
And it’s still going on even now, with the debt and overspend continuing to grow.
It is absolutely disgraceful that it will be the residents of Croydon who will be paying the price for the appalling decisions which the Labour Council have been taking and which have landed us with £1.5bn of debt. There is no doubt that steep rises in council tax bills and diminished services are coming our way very soon.
But as this crisis rolls on, I’m hearing concerns from some quarters about the time which it is taking for the Government to respond to the Labour Council’s request for a £150m bailout. However, I think it’s important to bear a few facts in mind:
- Croydon is the only London borough in such dire financial straits
- Croydon has been struggling to balance its Budget for quite some time and has been running the reserves down to dangerously low levels for a number of years – certainly well before coronavirus
- Labour’s 2019/20 accounts have still not been signed off by external auditors Grant Thornton due to outstanding discrepancies
- The £1.5bn debt is by far the highest of any London borough and has been costing Croydon council tax payers £15,000 an hour, every single hour since Labour were elected in 2014
- Labour have been making appalling decisions on investments and spending: buying Croydon Park Hotel and The Colonades; and lending some £200m of our money to Brick by Brick – much of which we will never get back
- They have repeatedly ignored residents calling for a Democratically Elected Mayor
- And now they are making shocking decisions on cuts to really important services
As an example, two of the cuts which were amongst the first to be announced, will hit the most vulnerable in our Borough the hardest, which seems an extraordinary strategy.
Firstly the cutting of the long established Welfare Rights Team. This experienced team offers much needed financial advice and support to thousands of residents right across Croydon, avoiding them being drawn into debt and preventing homelessness - and actually brings money into the Council.
Secondly, the cutting of the Croydon Discretionary Scheme. This service helps residents suffering financial hardship with emergency living expenses including food bank vouchers and fuel.
To have picked these two particular services is both short-sighted, incredibly unfair and heartless.
It seems to me that in the light of the Labour Council’s ongoing incompetence, continued poor decision-making and flagrant disregard for prudent financial management of council tax payers money, the Government is being eminently sensible in taking its time to consider the bailout request.
This Labour Council continues to let down the residents of Croydon and it’s no wonder the Government is being cautious about giving them access to any more public money.
