While the local government finance settlement might pull some of our councils back from the brink, we shouldn’t kid ourselves that it puts us on a sustainable footing to meet the needs of our communities or our environment.
It relies heavily on councils raising council tax, putting more strain on our residents as their cost of living continues to rise.
Another one-year settlement isn’t genuine devolution. Instead, we continue to have the Government’s levelling-up version of what they call ‘devolution’.
It dangles the carrot of having the powers and funding we need to get the job done, but only if local government reorganises, with fewer councillors with less capacity to represent their communities, ultimately sacrificing genuine local democracy.
Looking ahead this year, we expect more people to be disenchanted with the status quo of the big parties and looking for genuinely local representatives in Independent, Green and the smaller parties. I know many of you will be working towards the 2023 local elections with that in mind.
“Another one-year settlement isn’t genuine devolution”
It is disappointing that our representations fell on deaf ears and Parliament passed the requirement for every person to show specified photo ID in order to vote in person.
Unusually, both the Electoral Commission and the Association of Electoral Administrators published full reports pointing out why these changes – less than six months from the 4 May elections – put our democratic system at risk.
The onus will again be on local government – including us councillors – to try to make it work for ‘most’ people.