Councillors Against Cuts

We are pleased to report that a delegation from Councillors Against Cuts will be meeting with national UNISON officers on January 29th to explore possibilities of common action against all cuts to jobs and services in local government.

This follows the motion passed at the UNISON 2013 local government conference for UNISON to campaign alongside CAC.

We hope to discuss with UNISON:

1) an urgent and immediate joint call, from both CAC and UNISON, on councils NOT to cut jobs and services.

2) a common campaign of leaflets/ public meetings/ debates and demonstrations explaining the case for Councils not to implement the cuts demanded by the Tory and LibDem coalition.

3) support for Labour councils and councillors who refuse to vote for cuts in jobs and services

Time is short before 2014 local government budgets are agreed. In those budget debates – trade unions, Labour Party organisations and as many councillors as possible must do their utmost to organise against these cuts.

But even if cuts budgets are agreed we need to stand together in stopping them through continuing political campaigning as well as trade union action.

We ask anti-cuts campaigners throughout the country to let us know what else they think Councillors Against Cuts might suggest in our meeting with UNISON. Please email your suggestions to CouncillorsAgainstCuts@gmail.com.

The ConDem destruction of local government services and jobs has to be fought. We will continue to do whatever we can to fight against them, and demand they be reversed, along with trade unions and other anti-cuts campaigners.

Jonathan Carr-West, director at the Local Government Information Unit, reveals the extent to which Councils believe the current round of cuts could be terminal in an article on an London School of Economics blog, http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/archives/36972.

“Sir Merrick Cockell, Chairman of the Local Government Association, used an interview on the eve of Eric Pickles’s speech to conference to announce his view that the latest round of budget cuts (another 15% for 2015/16) would lead to some councils going bankrupt… an Audit Commission report estimated that a third of unitaries and county councils could be at medium-term risk of being unable to balance their budgets…the leader of Birmingham City Council Sir Albert Bore has argued vociferously that spending cuts mean “the end of local government as we know it.” … more than 50 councils shared evidence of a medium term collapse in their ability to keep paying for care. We’re familiar with the scenario outlined by the now infamous Barnet Graph of Doom in which councils can afford to pay for adult social care and children’s services and absolutely nothing else. But many councils that we spoke to shared Sir Merrick’s view that it could be worse than that and that they would struggle even to maintain core statutory services.“

Councils cannot pretend that implementation of the Tory cuts agenda will help with the longer-term defence of jobs and services. They have to be honest not only with the Local Government Information Unit, but with unions, their employees and the public. They should raise the call to fight back against the destruction of the services they were put in place to maintain, manage and defend.

Pete Radcliff, Secretary, Councillors Against Cuts

Dear councillor,

As we start to review the budgets for 2014/15, I urge you to remember our core values and protect jobs, services, housing and other amenities, for the people who voted for us and the most vulnerable in our society.

Whilst I realise that Labour-led councils in many respects disagree with government policy, nevertheless, Labour councils have become the direct instruments of implementation of the said policy. We are the ones who are actually making the cuts and it is no comfort to those who are losing their livelihoods and services that it is being done by the person they voted for.

The scale of the cuts to come in 2014/15 and 2015/16, on top of the cuts that have already been implemented, means the devastation of public services. This will undermine the ability of councils to defend and promote the well-being of current and future generations and the future of local government itself.

Westminster and council officers tell us that ‘there is no alternative’ to the current ‘austerity’ policy. That is simply not true: the majority of economists of all persuasions agree that cuts will not lead to economic recovery. When we are told that we have no alternative to carrying out the instructions of a democratically elected government, we have to remember that the present government has no democratic mandate for its current political course. In fact, in the last general election, the majority of the people voted against the type of policies now being pursued.

We councillors in local government do have the power to resist the government cuts and at the same time to reject the dishonest manipulation of our democratic system that this coalition has followed. We should also support the local government workers’ unions claim for fair pay.

The notion that ‘there is nothing else we can do’, is wrong. Councils have the legal and financial powers to delay cuts by drawing on reserves, using borrowing powers, working with tenants and unions to avoid evictions and privatisations. This can all be done within the law and cannot be over-ruled by central government. None of these policies mean setting a deficit budget, though that in itself is not illegal. It’s true that some smaller councils don’t have large reserves, but the larger ones do. We should be asking our Finance Directors what are our prudent levels of borrowing. Let’s place the blame firmly where it belongs, at the door of the government. There are other strategies that the unions are putting forward that can be discussed. The key is to bring local communities with you: they will rally round if we show them that we are willing to defend them. Remember, if we don’t show them bold leadership they will ultimately remove their vote. Most importantly Unite the Union and Unison have a policy that they will support councillors who resist the cuts.

I urge you to reconsider your current position and to work with your colleagues to change the current direction of council policy. Please don’t turn your back on the people who depend upon you and fight for the mandate you were elected upon – but most of all fight for what you believe in!

Councillor Kevin Bennett
kbennett@warrington.gov.uk

Our list of councillors making the call for councils to adopt policies of ‘No evictions of Bedroom Tax victims’ rises to 30. Our thanks to Cllrs Julie Gibson, Gaynar Owen and Chis Owen of West Lancs Council.  Cllr Gordon Friel of Sefton Council sends this message.
“Comrades
The Tory & fib dems cuts were too deep, too quick & demographically punishing against the North of England.
They have been robbing the poor to pay the rich at the same time cutting jobs in local government which has impacted on business.
Food bank recipients are near equal in numbers between those in work and those not.
The next campaign may be to save councils themselves as I fear the end of those institutions draw nearer to being bankrupt.
There are alternatives to all this
Financial transaction tax ,house building and infrastructure schemes.
Is £50 billion the best scheme? as that may be the HS2 cost.
Sign me up for no evictions.
Gordon Friel
Labour Party
Councillor
Linacre Ward, Sefton M.B.C”

Support continues to flow in from councillors across the country for a clear line of ‘No eviction of Bedroom Tax victims’.

Amongst those giving support include RMT General Secretary, Bob Crow. An indication that this is a matter that the trade union movement has strong feelings on. We welcome other trade union messages of support.

Also sending their support are Kim Gibson, Mayor of Ramsgate as well as now 5 councillors on West Lancashire Borough Council.

What is being shown is that when they are approached many councillors will sign. We are a small campaign without the resources or databases to access the thousands of councillors we need to get to. That is why we need every Labour and Bedroom Tax activist to help us to pass the statement on to all the Labour councillors they can contact.

Our thanks to all of those adding their name. Let’s see councils now making the pledge to not evict Bedroom Tax victims.

Statement by Labour Councillors and other anti-Bedroom Tax activists

Please repost this statement on Party and campaign websites and circulate to every Labour council and Party organisation

The Bedroom Tax has so far created many tragic stories of suicides of those fearing being evicted because of rent arrears or being moved away from the only communities they have. Many of those stories have been covered in the media but there are tens of thousands of other untold and terrible stories of despair and anguish as a result of this Tax.

Already the Bedroom Tax has made debtors out of 50,000 council tenants, virtually all of whom are very poor and many of them disabled. The Tax has outraged anyone in the general public with even the slightest compassion.

At the time when the act was passed there was considerable denunciation of it by Labour councils and councillors. But after that, whilst very little was said at a national level, not enough has been done by our Labour Councils. Some councils have reclassified rooms other than bedrooms. A few councils in Scotland and a very few in England & Wales have made clear and unequivocal commitments that none of the tenants they are responsible for, will be evicted for going into arrears because of the Tax.

We know many councillors have felt that they cannot persuade their full Labour groups to adopt such a measure and have attempted to get their councils to be as sympathetic as they can to Bedroom Tax victims.

But sympathy expressed in Council Chambers or Labour Group meetings will not relieve the fear of homelessness. Many tenants may not hear of their council’s sympathies – overzealous council officers may be driven by other ‘targets’. The discretionary payments fund can only answer a fraction of the requests for help.

Councillors may have been concerned at getting out-of-line with national policy. Indeed, for many months it was uncertain whether there would be a firm commitment from the Labour Party leadership to repeal this act.  But now there is a clear commitment from Labour to remove the Bedroom Tax when it gets in, as it must, in 2015.

Councillors may have been worried of the loss of revenues from uncollected rents. But even if one ignores the moral aspect of burdening the poorest sections of our community with the task of balancing Council housing budgets, the fact is now, even where threats of evictions remain, the debts are already huge and growing. The threat of eviction does not help councils balance their books: it only brings unbelievable and unnecessary distress to hundreds of thousands of the poorest people in our communities.

There cannot therefore be any serious concerns either financial or about Party unity that can sensibly be used by councils against the ‘no eviction’ position.

What other concerns might there be? Damage to Labour’s electoral standing? The opinion poll response to Ed Miliband’s statement on the Bedroom tax shows that many of those who we need to persuade to vote Labour are fiercely opposed to this Tax.

An even clearer stand by Labour in Councils to block the Bedroom Tax could conceivably make this measure so unworkable and unpopular that the Tories may be compelled to withdraw it, as they did the Poll Tax, for fear of even wider electoral damage.

Our campaign asks all councils and councillors to reconsider how they respond to the suffering caused by the Bedroom Tax.

We are calling on all our councils to refuse to evict those put in arrears accumulated because of the Bedroom Tax.

A ‘refusal to evict’ is not illegal, it can only do damage to the Tory and Lib Dem government – it’s the only decent thing to do – let’s just do it.

Let’s work together to stop the dreadful consequences of the Bedroom Tax. Let’s get rid of it and the government that is responsible for it.

If you support this argument, especially if you are a Labour councillor, activist or affiliated trade unionist, please contact the Councillors Against the Cuts campaign.

Current signing councillors
Kingsley Abrams, Lambeth Council
Steve Barber, Broxtowe Council
George Barratt, Barking & Dagenham Council
Kevin Bennett, Warrington Council
Emma Corlett, Norfolk Council
Noel Delaney, West Lancashire Borough Council
Richard Doran, West Lindsey District and Gainsborough Town Council
Waida Forman, Harlow Council
Gordon Friel, Sefton Council
Neil Furey, West Lancashire Borough Council
Julie Gibson, West Lancashire Borough Council
Kim Gibson, Thanet District Council and Mayor of Ramsgate
Nikki Hennessy, West Lancashire Borough Council
Josh Jones, Birmingham City Council
Len Junier, Middleborough Council
Gill Kennett, Hull Council
Nina Killen, Sefton Council
Dean Kirk, Hull Council
Greg Marshall, Broxtowe Council
Mary McGuckin, Broxtowe Council
Nathan Morrison, Aberdeen City Council
Wayne Naylor, Leicester City Council
Andrea Oates, Broxtowe Council
George Oliver, West Lancashire Borough Council
Gaynar Owen, West Lancashire Borough Council
Bob Pendleton, West Lancashire Borough Council
David Robinson, Sefton Council
Liz Savage, West Lancashire Borough Council
Patrick Vernon, Hackney Council
Gary Wareing, Hull Council
Kevin Wight, West Lancashire Borough Council & Chair, West Lancs Labour Group of Councillors
Chris Wynn, West Lancashire Borough Council

Also signed by
John McDonnell MP
Nick Palmer, Labour PPC, Broxtowe

Trade Union support
Bob Crowe, RMT General Secretary

Alan Wyllie, No2BedroomTax campaign
Pete Radcliff, Secretary, Councillors Against Cuts campaign