Member Article

Northern Council leaders warn of social unrest

Three northern Labour council leaders have instructed the Government to “turn back” on deep funding cuts.

In a letter published in the Observer, Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes; Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson; and Sheffield City Council leader Julie Dore told the Government that cuts were in danger of creating a “deeply divided nation.”

The three leaders stressed that the latest round of cuts to local government services put their northern cities at a severe disadvantage.

The letter read: “The One Nation Tory brand of Conservatism recognised the duty of government to help the country’s most deprived in the belief that economic and social responsibility benefited us all.

“What we have today is a brand of Conservatism that has no social conscience, taking us back to a Dickensian view of the world. The unfairness of the government’s cuts is in danger of creating a deeply divided nation.

“We urge them to stop what they are doing now and listen to our warnings before the forces of social unrest start to smoulder.”

Before Christmas, UNISON also warned that cuts to local authority spending would be devastating to services.

Heather Wakefield, UNISON’s Head of Local Government, said: “Local councils are already under the Government’s financial cosh and today’s cuts will push many more vital services over the edge. By 2013/14 the Spending Review will have cut grants to Councils by £4.3bn while handing companies £3.75bn in cuts to Corporation Tax, where is the fairness in that?

“The evidence of the damage on vital local services is now all around us and plain to see. The wrong choices are being made and the gap between Ministerial rhetoric and the reality of what is happening to public services simply gets wider. Ministers are out of touch with the lives of ordinary people and the day to day experience of those who rely on and deliver our public services.

“Using council reserves to pay for everyday services is bad financial management because once they are gone, that it is it – councils will have no financial safety net in case of emergency.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .