Budget Plans Revealed. Cuts and Sell-Offs.
The response to the failure to manage the budget properly is as follows:
£22 million Cuts in Services.
£16 million from the sale of Sale of Assets.
We will be responding to the budget announcements in greater detail in due course.
Our first impressions are that the difficult decisions have been pushed down the road, for someone else to make.
This is a budget from a mayor who is struggling to stay afloat, but who has neither the ability nor the desire to make the decisions that will stabilize the council’s spending. She proposes to sell capital to prop up revenue spending. At the same time, she will slash spending on important services whilst leaving her pet programmes untouched.
The money-pit that is Newham Sparks is left untouched. Keep Newham Moving, (the road repairs programme) is slashed. The number of Enforcement Officers is to be cut again, down to eight.
Reading behind the headlines it is evident that Mayor Fiaz does not see her future in the borough, she appears to be resigned to the fact that her second term will be her last. All she wants to do is survive to the end and she’s quite happy to leave a poisoned chalice for her successor.
Someone else will have to balance the books and if that happens to damage the Labour Party, well, tough.
We reflected upon Fiaz’s record and how it has already damaged the local Labour Party. It now seems beyond doubt that she will leave lasting damage to the council as well.
Quite what will happen to Labour’s electoral chances is yet to be seen. For the first time in decades, Labour is now facing a serious challenge in the borough.
This is the legacy she will leave and which Labour will take to the elections in 2026.
Labour’s Record:
Higher Taxes
Cuts in Services
Failing local infrastructure
Increased Dissatisfaction amongst voters
A Dysfunctional Labour Group
A Labour Party that is moribund
But by then, she will be off elsewhere. The problems will remain and it will be for someone else to sort them out.
