The Conservative opposition on Salford City Council have moved for a true Zero Increase for the City taxpayers.
The first lesson which Labour and the other Opposition Parties need to learn is what zero means. When the council tax bill lands on the doormat there should be no increase from last year – Labour’s does not! It is higher.
To achieve a true zero council tax bill, extra savings of £774,000 had to be found. We found this extra saving which implemented would have resulted in a TOTAL Council Tax Freeze. Labour and the new Independent Group voted against this!
In total we found an extra £2.3m of savings. Including:
Chief Executives Directorate
Non-replacement of post of Director of Marketing and Communications £80K
Ice Rink & Proms in the Park - budget to break even £300K. [We would not touch Community Events]
Tourism & Corporate marketing £209k
Life in Salford - reduction of printing & delivering costs. Look for private advertising £25k making a total of £614k Savings.
Children’s Services
Additional Savings through the structural review and additional Income making a total of £175k savings
Community Health and Social Care
Neighbourhood Management to be streamlined.
Target efficiencies in Welfare Rights Budget.
Aim to make the Working Class Movement Library self funding. Total of £291k savings
Reduction of management fees to Salford Community Leisure – potential efficiency savings of £491k.
Customer and Support Services
A lot has been said about the losing of the Biscuits but it cost around £70K. on top of that we spend £40k on drinking fountains extra saving could be found.
Other savings across directorate of around 30k
Sustainable Regeneration
Urban Vision management fee further reduction £125k
Housing £70k
Cross cutting Issues
Think efficiency through acceleration of management structures, office accommodation, home working, ICT common functions, and collaboration with other councils for procurement and shared services - extra saving of £200k
Other measures
General housekeeping across all six directorates £60k
Strict management of consultancy fees across directorates £500K
Deletion of post of Executive Support Members £49k making a total of £609K
savings
What would we do with these savings?
Freeze council tax at its current rate Labour and the new Independent Party voted against this!
A 2% discount off the total Council Tax Bill for all tax payers of 65 or over starting this year. Unfortunately this was also voted down by Labour and the new Independent Party. Andy commented ‘We felt this section of our residents deserved extra assistance these are the people, who have in the past been hit hardest by council tax rises. They have seen their pensions raided by Labour, by the then Chancellor Gordon Brown and again under his Premiership their savings have dwindled. We intended to start reversing this trend by introducing this discount’
Increase by £150,000 the budget for snow clearance.
The big concern with all residents is the state of our roads. Labour intend to give some extra money to Urban Vision but in addition to this, we would give the eight community committees an extra £50,000 each to spend on highway maintenance. ‘Who knows better which roads in their area need repairing, Urban Vision or local residents? This is typical of Labour who do not trust the people’
This is a budget for all the people of Salford it protects essential front line services…it calls for valid and achievable reductions in non essential spending and provides a total freeze on the council tax bill.
View Appendix 1
View Appendix 2
One of the main reasons for the proposals to bulldoze green belt and greenfield sites across the City - including Burgess Farm and Barton Moss - is that the Labour Government has imposed a 35000 housing target on our local communities in the City of Salford, and similar targets on industrial land. This means that we would end up with the worst of all worlds - unviable flats, unsuitable industrial sites and unwanted green field developments.
Labour’s Tax On Jobs Will Kill Salford’s Recovery
Leader comment from Councillor Karen Garrido.
For the last 13 years working people have seen their taxes go up and up and their money wasted. Here in Salford, our Council Tax has risen by over 70% but local services have not improved; our roads are still crumbling and local residents are not receiving value-for-money.
Even Labour politicians now admit there is at least £11 billion of waste, but they want to wait a year before dealing with it. Instead of cutting waste, Gordon Brown and Labour are increasing the National Insurance tax.
This is another Labour attack on the lowest paid in Salford, who have already suffered through the 10p tax fiasco. Anyone earning over £7100 – £136 per week - will be worse off under Labour’s proposals.
We desperately need to support local businesses who have suffered greatly under Labour’s recession. Small business owners are the lifeblood of our town centres and shopping precincts, which are all suffering with high vacancy rates. According to leading business experts, raising National Insurance will cost over 57000 jobs in small businesses alone, leading to more vacant units and further decline in our town centres.
No wonder Conservative plans to stop Labour’s tax hike have been backed not only by local businesses but also by the leaders of some of Britain’s largest companies – such as Sainsburys, Marks and Spencer, Next and Mothercare – which, between them, employ over 500,000 people, including many local people here in Salford.
We will cut Labour waste to stop this tax on jobs. Anyone earning between £7,100 and £45,400 will gain by up to £150 a year with the Conservatives. More than seven out of ten working people here in Salford will be better off under our plans than under Labour. Nobody will be worse off, and thousands of local jobs in local businesses will be saved.
Like many local people, I’m also deeply concerned about the forthcoming cuts at Salford Royal Hospital. Salford Royal will cut £16m from the annual budget – with over 750 redundancies – as part of a £1bn package of cuts ordered by the Labour Government for the NHS across Greater Manchester.
This follows on from the disastrous Labour decision to close our highly-regarded maternity and neo-natal units. Unlike local Labour politicians, Conservatives have not given up on our maternity unit; under our proposals to devolve power back to local communities, the maternity unit at Salford Royal Hospital could be kept open if the local community and GPs support it and give it the necessary funding priority.
Salford Royal Hospital does a fantastic job for the City. A Conservative Government would protect health spending, and under Conservative plans for a “patient premium”, we would see more investment in our local NHS – not the huge cuts taking place under this Labour Government.
In a few weeks’ time, local residents across the City will have the opportunity to elect both a new Council and a new Government. This is the most important election in a generation, and local people have a clear choice between Labour administrations which have failed to listen, both in the Town Hall and in Whitehall, and a fresh start with local Conservatives.
At the last set of local elections, only a few hundred votes separated Labour from the Conservatives. A vote for anyone else will just help Gordon Brown and Labour sneak back in. Our taxes have risen, our post offices have closed, our hospital services have been cut, and our roads are still crumbling.
We have a real opportunity to change things – but you have to vote for it.