Droitwich & Evesham CLP Chair, Alex Knudsen, decries the lack of funding for Wychavon District Council
The Chaos and incompetence at the heart of this Conservative Government is causing real problems for families in Wychavon.
Our NHS is on its knees, crime goes unpunished, and like all local authorities, our services are being put under intolerable pressure by ministers’ refusal to accept reality.
Here, in Wychavon, we are receiving £7.47million less support from central government that we did under Labour – and our overall spending power has fallen by 28 per cent.
Now, just days before councils set the most difficult budget in years, and many months after the cross-party Local Government Association warned that soaring demand for social care and temporary accommodation was posing an existential risk to council budgets, the government has finally backtracked on its catastrophic Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024/25 and announced some extra funding – but it’s just more sticking plaster politics.
Our area is still not getting a fair deal – not fair for those who rely on our services and not fair in comparison to other parts of the country.
This comes from a Prime Minister who promised Tory activists he would take money away from areas in need and give it to richer areas as a bribe to win their votes.
The bottom line is that this emergency hand-out is an admission of total failure from an increasingly chaotic Conservative government that has sole responsibility for pushing so many local councils to breaking point over the last 14 years.
What we really need is a government that has a proper plan. Our country needs the security and stability that only a new government can deliver. The only real solution is a general election now.
Alex Knudsen
Droitwich & Evesham Constituency Labour Party Chair
Letter first published on the 8th/9th February 2024 in the Cotswold Journal, Droitwich Standard, & Evesham Journal.