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FTHN: From the Hornets Nest

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NON PERFORMING REFORM

TEENS IN CHARGE!

Two Lead Leicestershire CC Reform councillors running childrens’ services whilst still at uni! What can go wrong?

The Dame has studied the Council over the years.

She has seen the bad days with Merrick Cockell and its resurgence with a far higher quality of leadership.

Johnny Thalassites, Sof McVeigh, Cem Kemahli, Emma Will and Kim Taylor-Smith have proven not just competent but hard working.

The Dame doesn’t praise lightly but we get our money’s worth from them. Sof McVeigh, in particular, is handling the housing brief with skill and empathy.

However, in difficult times people are tempted to rush toward anyone who promises easy, happy outcomes. Reform will make all these promises, but the question we must ask is simple: can Reform be trusted to run this council?

The answer is a resounding no.

Just as bad would be Labour run by the member for Somalia, Cllr Ali and his team of no hopers.
Reform’s record of running local councils is dire. No one can accuse the Dame of being soft on K&C councillors—she has repeatedly called out poor decision-making when she sees it. But she is also a realist. Replacing the current leadership with political unknowns is a recipe for chaos and a surge in council tax.

Meanwhile, Joe Powell remains utterly silent on Labour’s grossly unfair so-called “fair funding” settlement, which strips money from K&C residents to subsidise other parts of the country.

The council could try to sugar the pill by dipping into reserves, but that merely kicks the can down the road and leaves the bill for the next generation. The hard truth is that a 5% council tax rise is looming—and that responsibility lies squarely with a Labour government.

Over the next four years, K&C will lose £108 million—more than 50% of its controllable budget—at a time when pressures from temporary accommodation and social care are already severe.

Handing control to Reform would be as reckless as asking children to run a successful company. Failure would be swift and costly. Rob Wharton, Reform’s deputy leader in Worcestershire, is already contemplating a 10% council tax rise—a stark example of why people with no local government experience represent a clear and present danger to our finances.

This year alone, the council plans to cut £22 million from its budget, with over 100 staff leaving. Capital projects will be paused. Freezing council tax under these conditions is not honest governance—it would put essential services at risk, from street cleaning and bin collections to social care.

When the council can freeze council tax, it will—as it did in the first term. But under this Labour government, local hands are being tied.

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5 responses to “NON PERFORMING REFORM”

  1. Politics is a filthy business: soaking the rich doesn't work. Avatar
    Politics is a filthy business: soaking the rich doesn’t work.

    “Over the next four years K&C will lose £108 million – over 50% of its controllable budget.” It was always thus under Labour Governments!

    I remember John Prescott defending his local authority support grants’ settlement after the 1997 general election. He diverted money away from affluent Councils to poorer local authority. He said in the House of Commons, “Barnsley needs it (money) more than leafy Kingston.”

    I also remember the then Leader of Kensington and Chelsea, Joan Hanham, being very clever when addressing Kensington’s reduction in support grant at that time, she said, “The settlement from the government was bad rather than disastrous.”

    The fact is Labour will hit Tory authorities with support grant reductions. In the days of Mrs Thatcher, the same thing happened with some Labour local authorities seeking judicial reviews. I seem to remember that the formula devised to reduce the support grants to Labour Councils back then had taken months for civil servants to devise but it turned out to be impenetrable to challenge in court although its practical applicability was seriously questionable.

    The good Joe Powell MP is bound by collective responsibility. He won’t speak out against his Party. Just as the Tory MP who represented me in the days of Thatcherite support grant reductions refused to speak out about cuts to my Labour Council’s support grant despite the only two Tory Councillors elected to that Council begging him to do so. Politics is a filthy business.

    What the Labour Government has forgotten with its savage cuts to the Kensington and Chelsea budget is that there is dire poverty in the north of of our borough and any cuts to services will affect the poor in the north of the borough far more than they will affect the wealthy in Knightsbridge, Kensington, Notting Hill, Campden Hill and Holland Park. Kensington and Chelsea’s Tories will have to increase the Council Tax quite dramatically but it is a pipe dream for the Government to imagine that they will tax the wealthy and keep the same level of service to those who rely on them.

    Reply
  2. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Children looking after children’s interests. Whatever next.

    Reply
  3. Miss Trotwood Avatar
    Miss Trotwood

    Dear Dame,

    It is naive and politically unsophisticated for the writer of this article to expect Joe Powell MP to be anything other than “utterly silent” over Labour’s “fair funding settlement” which, by definition, is very unfair.

    In the run up to the last general election, Emma Dent Coad attacked Felicity Buchan for Buchan’s failure to speak out against the Tory Government for not funding the rebuilding of St Mary’s Hospital. Of course, Flicka did not speak out against the Tory Government any more than Emma would have spoken out against any of Corbyn’s policies once his opposition Labour Party imposed collective responsibility. If Labour had been returned in 2019, the best that Emma would have done for her constituency if an unfair policy measure affected it, would be to try and influence Corbyn not to proceed with the measure. I am sure Joe Powell has done the required amount of politicking behind the scenes to protect the interests of his constituency.

    Collective responsibility is what it is in the world of politics.

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Anonymous

      Dear Miss Trotwood,

      I think Dent Coad has written this article. She does like to try out these long waffly pieces with the Dame in the run up to an election.

      You’re right about her having a go at Buchan in the advent to the last general election through this blog. She condemned Buchan for not speaking out about the Government’s failure to fund the re-building of St Mary’s Hospital.

      About six weeks ago, she sounded out the Dame’s bloggers over the Council’s plans for Portobello Market and their impact on the working classes without the greasy spoon egg and chip bars that she would like to see in Portobello Market. I hear the Council wants to improve the local economy with some nice restaurants and some good jobs for the unemployed workers who live in the area.

      Reply
  4. Doing the right thing. Avatar
    Doing the right thing.

    Miss Trotwood has a point.

    Emma Dent Coad to collective responsibility when she was on the TMO Board. Her conduct was exemplary and she toed the line magnificently and never actively dissented from any of the excesses and daftness of the Board and its Executive Members.

    She was not bound by collective responsibility after she left the TMO Board. From 2012 to 2017, she did not speak out about the incompetence of TMO staff or Board Members.

    She spoke out, after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, when she had a nationwide and world-wide audience. It was a bit late then.

    Reply

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