Letter: Maybe Local Tories Can Persuade the Government to Fix Council Funding?

Published on: 6 Feb, 2024
Updated on: 6 Feb, 2024

From: Mark Stamp

In response to: The Lib Dem Budget for Guildford – Just Not Good Enough

Selling some of the assets Cllr Brooker is talking about, to plug the shortfall caused by repeated cuts from central government and rising costs, is going to have an impact on not just the services that the council can offer but also the voluntary sector.

I’m aware of one charity that has already been given notice to vacate their council-subsidised office and another local charity is under threat of eviction. Losing these assets is going to put greater strain on council and other public services in the long run.

Cllr Philip Brooker has not mentioned that Conservative-run Surrey County Council, along with many councils across the country of all political persuasions, have issued warnings about their finances.

Maybe Cllr Brooker and his Conservative colleagues can press our MP and the MP for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) to make some fixes to local government financing? One of these would be to restore the audit commission to resolve the issue that only one per cent of local authorities had their accounts audited by the deadline last year.

Responses to Letter: Maybe Local Tories Can Persuade the Government to Fix Council Funding?

Bilal Akhtar Reply

February 6, 2024 at 8:04 pm

Our local MP Angela Richardson has already asked and government has already delivered. Please see the statement from Secretary of State Michael Gove: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-01-24/hcws206

Bilal Akhtar is a Conservative borough councillor for Worplesdon
- Mark Stamp Reply
  
  February 9, 2024 at 11:32 pm
  
  That statement includes £600 million of new council funding of which £500 million is to cover rising costs of social care. In October last year, the local government association said that local authorities face a £4 billion funding gap over the next two years so the question stands for the remaining £3.4 billion.
  https://www.local.gov.uk/about/news/funding-gap-growing-councils-firmly-eye-inflationary-storm
Henry Rockingham Reply

February 15, 2024 at 9:37 am

If the Council stopped squandering our money on outrages like the new bridge, the Village (twice) and all the fraud (£16 million [HRA] investigation for one thing), idiot schemes like the Weyside Urban Village, and keeping so many of their properties empty to name but a few, there would be more than enough money.

GBC has been wasteful and ineffective for decades. Pretending it’s someone else’s fault is fooling no-one.