Originally published @ 2:31 pm, Mon 25th Oct 2010
Cameron and Clegg came to Nottingham the day after the Comprehensive Spending Review was announced.
They will have been pleased to confirm the announcement that the extension to the Nottingham tram gets the go-ahead.
But the Nottingham City Council will be reeling from the cuts it has to make; perhaps equivalent to going back 6 years next year, then another 3, then another 1 and then another 3.
A phone-in (on Heart Radio) excluded journalists, but Nick Robinson was able to report on BBC News that all the questions had been hostile and perhaps on this occasion the journalists hadn’t been needed.
Meanwhile, an overview and scrutiny committee was reviewing a service that sought to improve the management and utility of homes left empty by their private owners. Such properties can become the focus of anti-social behaviour and the service team are making good progress in getting owners to use their property to effect. Nevertheless, the markets don’t seem to be enough to force an owner’s hand – we need all the property we can get or the modern families who live in smaller family units. The service is funded as far as March by a regional fund and then the funding stops. Elsewhere, I’ve heard calls for an empty property tax and maybe this could help encourage better property use. (Perhaps with general powers of well-being, the Council can make a charge?)
Meanwhile, a LibDem Councillor at the same meeting decided to express concern about the propaganda coming from his own side; something about claims that more new social housing is being built by the coalition than had been under Labour. For reasons of timing and shortage of funds, he wondered if this could be true.
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