Labour’s Fair Funding Review is unfair, unbalanced and a betrayal of people living in Westminster.
The Review would strip more than £700 million from council budgets across the country, with inner London boroughs like Westminster hit hardest. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Westminster faces real-terms cuts of more than 10 per cent, even if Council Tax is pushed to the limit.
The impact would fall hardest on Westminster’s most vulnerable residents. Family support, street safety, homelessness prevention and adult social care all risk being undermined by a funding formula that ignores the reality of life in our city.
At the heart of the problem is a broken funding model that fails to recognise housing deprivation and the true cost of living in central London. The current formula ignores the pressures of temporary accommodation, the expense of providing services in the capital, and the challenge of supporting low-income families in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
But Labour’s failure goes further than the formula itself.
- At the Labour-led Westminster City Council, the Leader’s response has been slow, confused and politically weak. Instead of leading from the front to defend Westminster’s budget, the Labour Council has failed to act and allowed the city’s funding to be raided.
- At Sadiq Khan’s City Hall, he has once again failed to defend Westminster’s most vulnerable. Despite warnings about the damage these cuts would cause to essential services, the Mayor has done nothing to fight for the people who rely on them.
- And the Labour Government have pressed ahead with a plan that punishes vulnerable communities in Westminster while pretending to promote “fairness”.
This is not leadership. It is a shameful dereliction of duty.
That’s why Westminster Conservatives are calling for an urgent revision of the Fair Funding formula to reflect properly:
- The high cost of housing and temporary accommodation
- The genuine deprivation and vulnerability that exists across Westminster
- The complexity and cost of delivering vital local services in the heart of our capital
Westminster deserves leaders who will fight for it, not a Labour Government and Council that look the other way.
Our message is simple:
- Revise the Fair Funding formula to include housing deprivation
- Protect Westminster’s most vulnerable residents
- Give our city a fair deal
If the Conservatives are elected to lead Westminster again in 2026, we will make it our mission to ensure Westminster’s needs are recognised, our residents’ voices are heard and gets the funding it deserves.
You can help by backing our campaign to make Labour revise the Fair Funding Review, so it recognises housing deprivation and the true cost of providing services in Westminster.