Michael Edwards

Apr 1, 202015 min read

Budget speech and announcements 2005-06

Speech to Full Council (7th March)...

Ambitious for Nottingham - the budget and Labour's six new pledges

Last year’s budget day was a special day – coinciding with the formal opening of the tram.

And what a success it’s been. The best of its kind in the country. Integrated ticketing. And set to carry eight million passengers in its first year.

A special day and I made a real effort to cover the bases in that day’s budget speech.

So it was a bit of a downer when I was told I was dreary. Who by? None other than Cllr. Culley. Ouch!

Now, perhaps my problem is that I don’t drink. I’ve certainly never experienced band H champagne.

But I’m willing to learn - on how to be bright and breezy. Really, Georgina – show me the way. Show us all how it’s done. Cheer us up today!

At Exec Board, I was told I was full of waffle. Who by? By Cllr. Cowan. Ouch! That stings.

Really, Michael - show me the way. Show us how to get to the point. Show us how to be polite, pertinent and brief!

So let’s cut to the quick.

The Labour Party believes that we achieve more together than we do alone.

The Labour Party believes in a better society through investment in public services.

This budget sees £15m of new public services, spent on our priorities of –

- improving schools,

- helping those who need help most, and

- making our communities safer and cleaner.

All within a Council tax increase that is average for unitary authorities.

This budget proposes a capital programme again well over double what we got under the Tory government.

And that’s before we invest £135m in re-building or refurbishing seven secondary schools.

And that’s before we invest over £300m to raise council houses to the Decent Homes standard.

The scale of what we are doing has been transformed.

At the Urban Summit, I met a Tory MP who knew Nottingham politics intimately before 1997; but has not been able to keep up with it since.

His memory of what was controversial was whether the junction of South Parade and Beast Market Hill should be signalled. Remember that?

Since 1997, we have –

introduced a Clear Zone to reduce traffic and improve air quality;

refurbished Friar Lane to make a more pleasant walk to the Castle;

improved Maid Marian Way, to remove the dank and depressing underpasses;

are implementing Turning Point to send cars around the city centre, and

introduced the tram.

And now we plan to bring the Old Market Square into the 21st century – making it properly accessible to all.

Ambitious for Nottingham.

Creating a better, more secure environment for commerce to thrive and create more jobs.

Unemployment fell by another 450 in Nottingham last year, to 6,450.

Why was it that our ambition in the nineties was muted to tolerating unemployment between 15,000 and 21,000?

Why did we have to accept –

- annual cuts in spending on schools?

- waiting times for operations of 18 months and more?

- pensioners getting by on £70 a week – including benefits?

- settlements of only £200k and £300k for capital programmes for road maintenance?

- the doubling of crime under a Tory Government?

Couldn’t you have tried for better?

Well, we’ve moved on.

We are setting ourselves new challenges.

The refreshed Strategic Plan for this city aspires to –

- developing Nottingham as a Regional Capital and a European city;

- tackling deprivation in our neighbourhoods;

- improving our weakest services;

- improving the way we welcome and serve people who seek our assistance;

- “Gearing Up” our organisation and setting out a planning framework for improvement and achievement without resort to repeated operational intervention.

And now the country is being offered a new ambition for the next four years.

An ambition stated in six pledges; following the 2 sets of 5 that have been delivered.

“Pledge No 1: Your family better off.”

including

“more people off benefit and into work”

And today’s budget contains more proposals to help more Nottingham people into work.

Pledge No 2: Your child achieving more.

This Council is contributing by a relentless focus on improving the quality of teaching learning and organisation in our schools. The extra £4.2 million for schools will enable the workforce reforms. And we have actively sought to be a part of Building Schools for the Future.

“Pledge No 3: Your children with the best start.”

Sure Start is an excellent scheme. And at the last Executive Board, we agreed plans to build 9 more centres.

“Pledge No 4: Your family treated better and faster.”

“In 1997, 119,000 patients waiting over 9 months, today 306.” That’s probably 600 people in Nottingham who were waiting over 9 months then, instead of perhaps a handful now.

Of course health is more than treatment.

We’re proposing an extra £6 million for social services, to provide more and better care, including helping people to live in their homes for longer.

“Pledge No 5: Your community safer.”

Respect for Nottingham has made a massive contribution to tackling crime and the fear of crime in this city.

The very effective campaigns against begging and street prostitution has made it easier for people to feel comfortable whilst walking through the city centre and significant parts of my ward and elsewhere.

We know we have more to do – hence the extra £2 million – which pays for more wardens and more CCTV.

“Pledge No 6: Your country's borders protected.”

And much easier life would have been if border controls tackling guns and drugs had been more effective in the past.

So six new pledges. Pretty well aligned with the City’s strategic plan and today’s budget.

£15m of new public services, spent on our priorities of

- improving schools,

- helping those who need most help and

- making our communities safer and cleaner.

And a capital programme that is over double the programme of the nineties,

plus achieving Decent Homes standard and Building Schools for the Future.

All within a Council tax increase that is average for unitary authorities for the next year.

A real commitment to a higher ambition for our go-ahead city.

Statement to February Executive Board (22nd Feb.) ...

Ambitious for Nottingham - the proposed 2005/06 budget.

This year’s budget represents a significant growth in public services provided throughNottingham City Council.

Much of the extra money is highly directed; highly directed to Gov’t priorities – of schools, helping adults and children most in need and extra provision for young people.

We are proposing extra services to meet strong local demands. Largely through our “Respect for Nottingham” campaign, which is tackles the problems that Nottingham people stay most concerns them – crime, anti-social behaviour and litter.

There are other needs too, like getting the finances right before the launch of Nottingham City Homes and putting aside money for Equal Value, which will recognise the contribution that some of our workers more fairly.

Finding the money for these projects has involved a challenging review of what can be done without. £5 million has been identified through more efficient ways of working and not doing some things, so as to support our priorities (as expressed in the updated strategic plan).

Such savings are found in the confidence that the City Council believes in improving Nottingham through more public services and better public services. Reports on performance, both internal reports (on our performance against key indicators) and external reports (including the latest Annual Audit Letter), show that we are improving the way we deliver public services.

The headline budget figures are impressive –

£4.258 million above inflation for schools,

£6.086 million above inflation for social services,

£337 thousand above inflation for youth and community services,

£600 thousand above inflation for housing services,

£2.020 million for the City Council’s local priorities, including Respect for Nottingham improving our customer focus (providing a more effective welcome to, and response from, the City Council as people seek our help and assistance, in the receptions and on the phones) and developing our city,

£1.500 m extra set-aside for Equal Value.

We are also continuing to invest in the capacity and effectiveness of the City Council in the way it works (our Gearing Up programme).

The full increase on the base is £16.4 million of extra services. We’re contributing £2.1m to match passporting; and £2.0 million of services on local priorities (of which only £200k has to be used for maintaining services previously provided by Gov’t); so every penny of the 4.8% Council tax increase is going on extra services. (This does not include the extra found for housing and social services.)

Beyond these changes we are getting an extra £250k for improving recycling – the planning delivery grant is still not announced.

On capital spending, we are raising some extra from prudential borrowing and extra money available cos of the late start of the NET system. We are directing this money towards refurbishing our leisure centres, providing better primary schools and better community safety measures. Regarding Gov’t grant and supported borrowing, we do less well on transport – although we can reflect on how we used to get nothing for integrated transport measures and £200k or £300k in the mid-nineties – and better on housing and education – before we include the impact of the investment to be realised by achieved a 2 star rated ALMO and before we include Building Schools for the Future, the biggest investment package in our schools since the Victorian age.

The scale of our budget changes show we are ambitious for the people of Nottingham. Better schools, more staff in schools, more refurbishment of council housing, more effective housing services, more support for adults and children most in need, better youth and leisure facilities.

We hope the people of Nottingham will support us in our ambition for Nottingham in the coming weeks.

- - -

The Tories have responded to the budget announcement by saying more should be done on tackling anti-social behaviour. Can we believe them? They have been dismissive on the scale of anti-social behaviour which we believe has to be tackled in the city centre, and in previous full Council debates, they have called for a range of extra City Council services, but never on anti-social behaviour.

The Tories always call lower Council tax. But can we trust them? They often then call for extra services, not raising charges and delays to action for further consultation - with no reagrd to balancing a budget.

The Tories say in campaign leaflets that Council tax increases should only be at the rate of inflation. Can we believe them? Last year having categorised Nottingham’s Council tax increase as 9.6%, their proposals only reduced the tax increase to 8% with one-year only proposals – in a year when the official inflation rate was 3%.

This year the official inflation rate is 3.1%. What will they propose this year? At the February Executive Board, the Tories have introduced the concept this year of taking the increase in the Council tax base into account in the figures, rather than the actual increase each hosehold is to pay. This inflates the proposed tax increase is 5.6%. However, such a interpretation would require the tax increase for a household to be increased only by 2.4% this year. So if the Tories are set upon 3.1%, they must propose £1.4m of service cuts, and if their target is 2.3%, they must propose £1.8m of service cuts.

The Tories cannot be trusted on tax. They duck challenges on balancing a budget and miss their own targets on proposing budgets that only require inflation increases. And their ambition for Nottingham is low. Their sense of the pressing need to tackle key economic and social issues in Nottingham is missing – characterised by calling for a Council tax cut last September such that the owner of a band H property might be able to afford a half-decent bottle of champagne.

- - - - - - -

‘Ambitious for Nottingham’

Schools, support for vulnerable people and making the city a safer, cleaner place will be the top priorities for Nottingham City Council in 2005/06 if budget plans being discussed next week get the go-ahead.

The City Council is looking to invest an extra £16 million in key services, money which has come from a £7 million increase above inflation in Government grant and around £5 million in savings brought about through more efficient ways of working. The remainder will be met by a 4.8% rise in Council Tax, which represents an increase of 66p a week for the majority of tax payers.

A report to the City Council’s Executive Board on February 22nd outlines how the extra funding will be used. Proposals include:

· £4.2 million for city schools, equivalent to an average increase of £115 per pupil, which will improve pupil / staff ratios in the classroom.

· £0.3 million for youth services including increased investment in youth centres and support for the Millennium Volunteers project.

· £6.0 million on social services including support to enable an increasing number of older people and vulnerable adults to live in their own homes rather than have to go into residential care.

· £0.5 million on making the city safer and cleaner through the Respect for Nottinghaminitiative.

City Council Deputy Leader, Councillor Michael Edwards, said: “We are ambitious for Nottingham. The millions of pounds we are investing will make the city a better place to live, learn, work and visit. “

“People have told us to be more efficient so we are proposing £5 million of savings. This enables us to propose an increase in Council Tax within Government expectations.”

The final Budget and Council Tax for 2005/06 will be considered by the full City Council on March 7th.

City Council to support more people in need

An increasing number of people who are elderly or have a disability will be provided with the care and support they need as part of Nottingham City Council’s spending plans for 2005/06.

Additional support for children and young people is also a top priority in the City Council’s draft budget for the coming financial year which, if approved, will see an extra £16 million being invested in local services, including £6 million for Social Services. Proposals include:

· £3.5 million in additional funding to provide more residential and nursing placements for elderly people and increasing the amount of home care available to enable more people to live independently in their own homes.

· Reviewing the fostering remuneration package with a view to recruiting and retaining up to 60 more foster carers.

· Building on the significant increase already achieved in the number of young people leaving care accessing employment, education or training opportunities.

· Providing more residential, nursing and day care placements for people with learning disabilities and increasing the number of people receiving care in Supported Living Accommodation at a cost of an extra £900,000.

· An extra £300,000 to make home care available to more people with physical disabilities.

· £200,000 more on services to support to people with mental health problems.

To support its budget proposals, the Council is also considering increasing charges for some its social care services.

Dave Trimble, Executive Councillor for Housing and Social Services, said: “This year’s budget plans include a substantial amount of additional funding to enable the Council to support the ever increasing number of local people of all ages who rely on the social care services we provide. “

City Council plans £2 million boost for fight against crime and grime

Nottingham City Council is looking to step up its ongoing fight against crime and grime as part of its draft budget proposals for 2005/06.

A £2 million package of measures has been put forward to continue progress already made towards a safer, cleaner city through the Respect for Nottingham campaign launched 18 months ago. Proposals include:

· £270,000 for a special Anti-Social Behaviour Unit to co-ordinate efforts to tackle the problem across the city in partnership with the Police, including a hotline for members of the public to report problems and get them dealt with.

· £74,000 for a dedicated Enviro-crime Team to take action against graffiti, fly tipping, litter, dog fouling and fly posting.

· £200,000 to pay for the continuation of the 11-strong City Centre street warden service replacing Government funding which has come to an end.

· £120,000 plus a further £1.1 million in capital funding to improve and expand the network of CCTV cameras operating in the city to help deter and detect crime.

· £50,000 to increase the capacity of the Council’s Community Safety Team to help Notts Police in its efforts to tackle burglary, drug and gun crime.

· £120,000 for a Spring Clean campaign to get local communities and businesses involved creating a cleaner city.

· £86.000 on a ‘twilight cleansing’ shift to keep the city centre’s streets clean into the evening.

· £50,000 for extra cleansing of neighbourhood shopping centres.

Councillor Sue Palmer, Executive Member for Community Safety and Area Working, said: “We know that crime and anti-social behaviour are major concerns for many local people in their neighbourhoods which is why we have made tackling the problem such a high priority in 2005/06. “

Environment spokesman, Councillor Brian Grocock, said: “We are planning to spend even more money in 2005/06 cleaning the city’s streets and neighbourhoods. However we are also putting more resources into tackling enviro-crime to deter people and businesses from making a mess of our city in the first place, whether it’s by dropping litter, fly tipping or spraying graffiti.”

City Council Leader, Councillor Jon Collins, said: “Since the Respect for Nottingham initiative was launched 18 months ago, big strides have been made in tackling the kind of problems like anti-social behaviour and enviro-crime that have such a negative impact on many people’s lives. The extra funding we are looking to commit in 2005/06 will build on this work and make the city even cleaner and safer in 2005/06.”

Schools spend for 05/06

The City Council is looking to invest an extra £4.2m in education from April. The sum is part of £16m-worth of spending on key services in 2005/2006.

The Government has promised to give schools an increase in funding for all pupils (4 per cent for secondary and special schools, 5 per cent for primaries and nurseries). This means that the Council is required to pass an extra £1.8m directly to city schools. If the 2005/2006 budget is approved at the forthcoming Full Council meeting, a further £1m will be given directly to Nottingham schools on top of that increase.

The £4.2m is equivalent to £115 per pupil, according to a report going before the Council’s Executive Board on 22 February. Spending proposals include:

● funding the preparatory stages of Building Schools for the Future, set to transform secondary schools across the city

● extra money to support children with special educational needs

● more cash to help schools with significant numbers of children joining and leaving mid-term

● extra funds for under-fives education

● increased work-related learning opportunities for teenagers

● additional funding to maintain school buildings and school sites

Around £0.5m is earmarked for supporting schools in attempts to free up teachers’ timetables time to allow them a breathing space for preparation and assessment outside lessons.

New look for youth centres

The City Council is expected to spend a third of a million pounds on community, youth and play services during 2005/2006, with around £350,000 already earmarked for refurbishing youth centres to make them more attractive, inviting and accessible venues, employing more youth workers and play workers and stepping up the number of sessions.

Initiatives aimed at involving more young people in helping to influence the running of their youth centres and the choice of activities will also be supported in 2005/06. Community Services’ successful bid for £150,000 from the Department of Education and Science should ensure the continuance of the city’s flagship Millennium Volunteers scheme, which encourages 16-25-year-olds to help in local clubs, play and community centres and voluntary organisations such as Oxfam and Age Concern.

[Last updated 2005-02-23]