City of Salford Conservatives

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.