Thank you Madam Chair
Can I start by thanking officers right across the Council for their work in producing the budget before us today, particularly those in the finance team. It is always a monumental effort and in Croydon’s current financial circumstances even more so.
This budget is one characterised by hard decisions. Decisions that have been taken where every option was one that we wouldn’t want but where it is our duty to assess those options and pick the best for Croydon as a whole. We have undertaken those assessments and MADE those hard decisions.
As a result of the historic financial mismanagement of this Council we faced a budget shortfall for next year of £85m as well as an ongoing structural deficit of £60m a year. This is after producing a savings plan for next year of £36m and £20m per year ongoing.
So what were our choices?
Could we cut services further?
Our savings programme is already in excess of what other councils are attempting and will continue to be so in years to come. To be clear, all external advice we have received backs up our opinion that to cut further than we are proposing would be both unsafe and in all probability, undeliverable.
Could we simply borrow it all?
We’ve been down that road before! The impact of simply capitalising this gap would be dire and simply delay the inevitable. Every year our debt financing costs would increase and the available resources to pay for services would decrease. The decision to raise council tax by 15% this year cuts these gaps significantly. EVERY year going forwards this Borough will be better off not just by the additional income from Council tax itself but also by the reduction in borrowing costs.
Let me be clear, raising Council tax in this way is NOT what we want to be doing and we understand the impact it will have. But to NOT do so would be worse in both the long and short term and as such we are taking the best course of action that sits within our power to deliver.
Now what about the suggestion that this is all somehow down to Government funding and that the government should just give Croydon lots more money every year.
So, is Croydon unfairly funded? If you compare us to inner London boroughs then it looks like we are. That’s why the Labour party and others always quote an inner London borough when they make this argument. Croydon is an OUTER London Borough. Of the 20 Outer London Boroughs Croydon sits 8th in terms of it’s funding per head. ABOVE average and over TWICE what some borough receive. Whilst there has always been cross party consensus that Croydon deserves more funding, the suggestion that this is the cause of our current position is entirely false, if it were true then half the councils in the country would be bankrupt.
The first report in the public interest made clear that one of this Council’s failings was that it spent to much time and effort lobbying for more money rather than actually taking the actions needed locally. It disappoints me that the party opposite appear to have learned nothing.
Finally, is there any better option? Every party represented in this Chamber had the opportunity to present a different approach, to submit an amendment that did NOT raise Council Tax by 15%. No party submitted ANY alternative to the Council Tax rise. If there WERE a better option then surely they would have tabled it? I have no doubt that later in this meeting they will vote against this budget, but they will do so as a political exercise. There is ONE plan on the table. Ours.
Madam Chair and Council
This budget takes the hard decisions and creates the financial improvements that sit within this councils powers to deliver. I know it is not what anyone wants but it IS what Croydon NEEDS.
There is opposition to this budget, but there is no ALTERNATIVE.
I strongly recommend that councillors take some responsibility and vote for this budget tonight.
Thank you Madam Chair.
