The leaders of the opposing parties in Southend Council have spoken to Councilbust.com of their reaction to Tuesday’s budget.
Cllr Graham Longley (left), leader of the Liberal Democrats, was positive in his approach. He told Councilbust.com: “Liberal Democrats, as part of a coalition government joined with the Tories today in a progressive alliance to produce the most difficult budget ever.
“Working as a coalition meant that the budget would be a compromise not only for the LibDems but also for the Tories.
“Many of us who may not be happy with the idea of working with the Tories feel that if we are able to prevent the extreme Tory policies then we will have achieved a level of success.
“The Labour Party though, made it easy for us in leaving behind one of the largest budget deficits in Europe with our public finances in a catastrophic state; much worse than expected.
“In the past, efforts to tackle a big deficit have always hit the poorest the most.
“The coalition has ensured that – for the first time – this will not happen.
“The richest will pay the most, while pensioners and children will be protected.
“The LibDems have been instrumental in producing a budget which doesn’t just pay the bills of the past but starts planning for the future.â€
Cllr Longley went on to say that many policies the Liberal Democrats had campaigned for had been implemented in this budget, such as the increase in Income Tax allowance and the bank levy.
Cllr David Norman (left, standing), Labour group leader, opposes many points in the new budget. He told Councilbust.com:
“Today’s Coalition Budget is as bad if not worse that we in the Labour Party had feared and warned against prior to the election.
“It will hit hard the most vulnerable groups in our society such as the disabled. The steep rise in VAT will also hurt the lowest paid most.
“The cuts in Governmental Departmental spending cannot be implemented without affecting the delivery of essential public services; at the same time, redundancies running into hundreds of thousands of public servants will deepen the economic recession as well as leading to low morale amongst those who are left.
“Here in Southend I foresee inevitable cuts in front line services such as the Supporting People project and Sure Start family centres.
“Areas like my own Ward of Victoria and Kursaal will see the true face of Conservative Government, and I fear that there is more and worse to come.
“I also have to say that I find it paradoxical that the Liberal Democrats, who only a few weeks ago were warning the electorate of a ‘Tory VAT bombshell,’ are now apparently supporting Mr Osborne’s plans for a hike in VAT.
“Clearly Mr Clegg and his colleagues have put power before principle; a view which evidently, would appear to be shared by Bob Russell the local Lib Dem MP for nearby Colchester who says he will vote against the VAT increase.
“Sadly the British Public are already paying a heavy price for the General Election result. Labour would have handled it differently.
“We shall speak out at every opportunity at the Government’s brutal economic policies-they are bad for Southend and bad for Britain.â€
Cllr Martin Terry (left), Independent leader, said: “The severity of this budget comes as no surprise and it marks a black day for local government.
“Whilst I and my Independent colleagues are the first to criticise inefficiency and have already identified and saved the Southend Council tax payer a lo of money I am concerned at the level of cuts required.
“Southend Council is one of Southend’s largest employers and it will have to make staff redundant whilst attempting to retain front line services.
“I do follow the argument that it is senseless to lay someone off only to then burden the tax payer with the benefit costs.
“The estimate is that throughout the UK 400,000 to 500,000 could lose their jobs.
“Many local businesses supply Southend Council. I hope these cuts do not cause the much feared double dip recession but I sense it will.
“It is our duty as Councillors to look to ways of providing services and we may need to extend funding of the voluntary sector and NGO’S to plug the gap in service provision.
“We will need to have open and frank discussions about how best to deal with this situation.
“Politically I think the coalition will now hit a very difficult phase and their popularity will soon diminish as the electorate see the country return to the 1980s.â€
Councillor Longely is clearly talking rubbish when he says that the government finances are worse than expected – the only revisions made to the national debt figures since the election have been in a downward direction.
He campaigned on a manifesto pledge not to make cuts in services this year and to oppose a rise in VAT. The only thing that has really changed since those promises were made is the Liberal Democrats getting a sniff of power.
Against those two huge broken promises, the income tax change and the bank levy are tiny fig leaves. The bank levy will raise only £2bn – something which one city insider described as “in the order of a rounding error” on banks’ profits, and the change in income tax threasholds is not particularly progressive – it will benefit millionaires as much as the very poor.
I have to agree with Ian Gilbert and David above. I really hope that voters will put pressure on their lib-dem representatives and make it quite clear that they in no way voted for this budget or the dreadful tory policies that appear each day on the news. The Labour party may have suffered in the past through not listening to their voters and it appears that the Lib-dems have fallen for the same terrible error. The VAT issue is an absolute disgrace and is being widely petitioned against. Highly respected economist David Blanchflower recently wrote that the measures the Tories are putting into place will lower aggregate demand and cause hundreds of thousands of job losses.Brendan Barber (TUC general secretary) called the budget ‘economically dangerous and socially devisive’ . At times when job losses are looming consumers cut back on their spending which will not make employers want to hire more staff. The private sector is not recruiting even in large corporations and cutting the public sector will only serve to reduce this as public sector employees becoming unemployed stop spending. It is the same old tories -come into power,create high unemployment,have people fighting for jobs,divide and rule. It’s just a real shame the Lib-dems are willing to allow years of hard work in bringing the health and welfare of our ordinary citizens up to a reasonable standard to be slashed in one swoop. Shame on them.Just as a matter of interest the labour party has had over 25,000 new members since the election
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