Havering financially on its knees.

Councillor Graham Williamson Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, today continues his series of articles in the Havering Daily.

In our first article we exposed how poor Havering is and how Government support has in times of austerity dwindled to next to nothing (in 2010 it was £70m but fell each year to now only £1.5m).

Havering on its’ knees
Because of this, Havering has had in fairly recent times, to make staff redundant which inevitably means a weaker service.

Increases in population into the borough, including young children requiring support but without an increase in funding, has brought the Council to its’ knees (savings of £70 million must be made in the next four years or we go bankrupt).

The problem with those savings is that, because some 70% of the Council’s budget is spent on social services that is largely statutory i.e., cannot be cut by law, this means that cuts will fall upon the services most residents rely upon e.g., sweeping streets, collecting household rubbish or repairing roads etc. Unfair but down to the Government.

Some readers however, have asked how is the Government then treating other London boroughs? 

The most recent published comparison figures for all London boroughs includes retained business rates (only a disappointing 30% of those rates are kept by Councils). Thus, Havering had £36m to use but neighbouring Barking & Dagenham has £76.4m, Newham £149.6m and Hackney £147.70.

Unfair and discriminatory
To put it another way, every Havering resident get £137 per person. Unfortunately, that is the third lowest amount in London. In comparison, Barking and Dagenham get £349/person, Tower Hamlets gets £472, Camden £547 etc etc. It is unfair, it is discriminatory.

In a future article we will look at how Havering and other London Councils have been treated by Government since the late 1980’s well before austerity from 2010. Another eyeopener.

Havering Residents Association