DRAFT OF NOTTINGHAM CITY COUNCIL BUDGET SPEECH
Thank you Chair,
I wish to move the budget report, alongside an amendment concerning the reward from the Business Growth Initiative, which my colleague, Alan Clark, will speak to.
Many of us at the moment are meeting lots of people, listening to their views and discerning common concerns.
Four years ago, crime and grime came up frequently.
The feedback from the 2003 elections counted significantly in the development of our plans and of our budgets.
And today, we re-affirm our commitment to 100 neighbourhood wardens; enabling the roll-out of neighbourhood policing across the city.
Disappointing perhaps, to hear from some on the doorstep, views like “nothing changes”, and surprising, perhaps, to hear from others that “we’re all the same”.
“We’re all the same.” Reflect on that!
Well, there are things that ought to unite us.
Our belief in politics as the way to make progress and resolve disagreements in a free society.
And I do get asked, what is it that the political groups really differ about here?
What I imagined the answer might be, would be our sets of beliefs.
Now, I hesitate to describe the Lib Dem’s sets of beliefs, cos it always seems to catch them by surprise, but the way it was taught to me, was - a blend of an emphasis on the rights of the individual and what I understood was an emphasis on the value of welcoming change, even for change’s sake.
The Conservatives, with an emphasis on sustaining an order of things, which brought advantages that could justify the existing inequalities.
Labour’s special concern for working people; and our emphasis on collective provision and mutual responsibility, to achieve a more equal outcome.
Our budget priorities are drawn from the concerns we’ve picked up from the public, and from our values -
That we achieve more together than we achieve alone;
That we want to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential;
That we want communities in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few;
That we live together, freely in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect.
And in case you wondered where that emphasis on respect comes from, yep, Clause 4, part 4 of the Labour Party’s constitution.
The new one.
Actually, the emphasis on the control of the means of production from the old one, has some resonance in Nottingham too.
We think things that are better for Nottingham, including some of the - quote - “incredible things” - unquote - we’ve been doing in public transport have been more easily achieved because of public ownership.
We think it’s an enormous matter of simple common sense that the city will make more progress if we do not lose control of NCT, and if we do not sell off the Royal Centre and the Ice Centre - something where we clearly differ from the Tories.
Perhaps the Tories can be open about their intentions on privatisation today.
We’ve been open and upfront with our spending plans and budget proposals.
It’s the opposition parties that have said nothing that the public can scrutinise. They have even failed to attend the relevant Executive Board & P&R scrutiny meetings.
No budget amendments in advance of today’s meeting, from the Lib Dems, or from the Tories.
We’ve previously published in the medium term financial plan, a planned 3% Council tax increase for this year and for the next few years.
Enabled in significant part by the Gov’t having recognised our claim that cities in the Midlands and the North were unfairly losing out to the South.
And we will continue to lobby for the faster lifting of the damping applied to the increases in grant for adult social care.
Better financial transactions, from improved financial management, has generated enough surplus to cover the proposal we published in January, to borrow to do more repairs & maintenance. No longer having to borrow, to do that particular programme of repairs, enables us to reduce the planned tax increase to 2.89%.
Significant to note that the Council has not received one letter of complaint about this year’s proposed Council tax increase, even when the Evening Post, bless them, announced it as 3% back in December.
The scale of developments and a tax increase significantly below the national average would not have been possible without the determination to find savings and new efficiencies, worth this year, £2.85 million.
We have required a search for savings and it’s been more easily achieved in an environment of overall growth in our provision of services to meet the needs and aspirations of our city.
Most of the increase in wages and costs the Council faces is covered by savings.
The new obligations are being covered by extra grant.
And schools get a 6.9% increase per pupil, another significant and above inflation increase.
Once again, all the extra tax being raised is to provide new services, or more services.
This year -
1/3rd of the new tax is for expanding the wardens and supporting the roll-out of neighbourhood policing.
1/3rd of the new tax is for expanding doorstep collections of recyclable waste; something we’re much keener on now we’ve found ways of making fortnightly collections of waste work and now we are more assured that the waste will be recycled. The new system is popular with the public, in part cos the national consensus for tackling climate change is growing.
1/3rd of the new tax is for more and better quality services for older people.
We want to do more for older people, including helping them to lead longer, more independent lives at home, even though we know, that this is the first time in history, that older people are no more likely to be worse off than the public generally.
There are new spending developments worth £7 million, in today’s budget.
And the capital programme and the PFI projects, together, now exceed £1 billion.
A phenomenal step-change from 10 years ago.
10 years ago - when we would celebrate one new lamppost with a ward newsletter.
10 years ago - when capital maintenance on schools for Nottinghamshire county was £2.27m – celebrated as the biggest award any county LEAreceived.
Over 10 years ago, when plans for not having traffic lights at the corner of the Old Market Square was a big issue.
Our ambition now is so much higher.
And our performance is again improved.
This year we improved 2 of our level 1 key services ratings and 1 of our level 2 key services ratings.
We have national reputations on Respect, on our radical transport policies, and on tackling climate change; and a growing European reputation on, & role in, culture.
Crime is down; schools results are up; we’re doing more for older people; investment is so much higher than decade ago and some of it is iconic for the city.
Which is why I’m disappointed to hear from some on the doorstep that politics makes no difference.
Returning then, to those doorstep responses - “we’re all the same” and “it makes no difference”.
The differences highlighted by the opposition have often been presented in an under-stated way.
The Tories have never really intervened to say how significant parts of the services we provide are unnecessary.
We suspect that the Tories would cut many things, like they did in 1987, but they haven’t said so.
For instance, is Sure Start safe under the Tories?
You did oppose the budget to create the wardens. If you remember, then, “only the numbers of Police Officers” mattered.
The Tory tax proposals are usually “let’s spend one-off reserves to lower the tax base” - not prudent.
And one year, they didn’t even want to dwell on it – the debate had finished before I could get back from the toilet.
But generally, nothing presented as large in scale. Even the opposition to the tram is presented in a technical, financial manner.
Nothing large scale from the Lib Dems either.
And certainly not on tacking crime and anti-social behaviour.
Of course, this year, we look forward to the Nott’m Lib Dems publishing their manifesto, before the election. A bit novel, publishing a manifesto four weeks after the election, like you did in 2003.
The opposition is under-stating, or keeping secret, the changes, they would bring about, if they took control.
The public needs to be warned, that there are very real differences between the parties.
The tram, Sure Start, fighting crime.
But what about making a difference?
The scale of change since 1997 is far greater than anything imagined possible when New Labour was elected.
Take “creating for each of us the means to realise our true potential”.
Spending per child at my school - serving probably the most disadvantaged cohort of children in the region - has more than doubled. The proportion of children attaining 5 good GCSEs has risen to over a third, from below a tenth. It was Elliott Durham children on the front of the Evening Post, last August, celebrating their 10, 11 & 12 good GCSEs.
And now we have a chance of an academy for St.Ann’s and Mapperley, Sneinton & Bakersfield. Extra capacity for the governance of schools serving the most deserving children and a better social mix for our children’s experience of school.
All part of a huge plan to replace or refurbish all our existing secondary schools.
We’ve built a new primary school and we have new children’s centres, to bring on the development of children from our most challenged neighbourhoods.
All this, yet in 1997, we were concerned to say nothing more than we’d get class sizes down to below 30 for key stage 1 classes. Cos we didn’t believe then, that people would believe anything more daring.
Politics has made a difference.
Politics does makes a difference.
Our challenge over the next few weeks is to explain that.
To show the vast difference between a Labour Britain and a Tory one.
To show that Labour has the ambition to take our city further forward.
We are determined to press on - to reduce crime further, to reduce anti-social behaviour further; to have smarter streets and neighbourhoods; to get our most disadvantaged children a better start to their adult life; to get more people out of dependency; to do more for the environment and to provide even better public transport.
Yes, politics makes a difference.
And Chair, in this city, it’s Labour that makes the difference. I move.
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