Havering Council Leader Says Councils Can’t Have Their Cake And Eat It As Borough Not Given Government Funding Lottery Money Like Inner London Councils.

“So it is not a level playing field and I am fed up of hearing about being unfairly treated when these councils have been able to eat cake for many years, when all we’ve got are the crumbs.”

Havering has once again lost out in the battle to secure funding from the Government. Despite endless calls for help to improve our financial position Havering was left out, again.

Please read the statement below from Havering’s Leader of the Council-Councillor Ray Morgon..

Year on year outer London boroughs like Havering have lost out in the Government funding lottery.

Due to this, many outer London councils, like Havering, have a legacy of high council tax and low Government grant. However, many inner London boroughs have been able to keep council tax low and receive large Government grants.

It is true that across London we have similar pressures with high demand on social care and temporary accommodation.

However, many inner London boroughs have large amounts of income from other sources and high reserves, along with large Government grants.

This means boroughs like Wandsworth, the Royal Borough for Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster have been able to keep their council tax increases low.

This also means they have a low council tax base to start from. Band D in Havering is £2,314 vs Westminster v RBKC and Wandsworth are £1,019, £1,592 and £998 respectively.

So it is not a level playing field and I am fed up of hearing about being unfairly treated when these councils have been able to eat cake for many years, when all we’ve got are the crumbs.

Any funding solution has to be based on need and pressures. We have suffered for years as have our council tax payers, with council tax now being our key way of funding services.

However, we still had to get a Government loan to make up the gap in funding due to the increases in demand and therefore the rapid increase in costs of social care and temporary accommodation.

It is good news that current projections based on what the Government have proposed shows we could receive more funding, but we will still have a loan and it won’t reverse the years of underfunding.

So the argument being made by some inner London Boroughs doesn’t stand up with me and any funding solution needs to be fair. You can’t have your cake and eat it.

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