Westminster City Council has written to Prime Minister Andy Burnham urging him to rethink the Government's Fair Funding Review 2.0, which the council says has singled out Westminster for one of the biggest real-terms funding cuts anywhere in the country, with £100 million being slashed from its core budget. Cllr Paul Fisher, the council's finance lead, said the Government was forcing councils to raise council tax and cut services to fill the gap, and that this came on top of the Government's new "family home tax," officially the High Value Council Tax Surcharge, which he said disproportionately hits family homes in Westminster hardest, as well as the Prime Minister's own proposed land tax. The council says it is prepared to submit a formal proposal for an alternative economic path, with a right to escalate to a cross-party selector panel at the Local Government Association if the Government rejects its case. The Conservatives have said council tax could double in the coming years as a result of the cuts, and have pointed to a recent review finding more than £56 million lost in mismanagement under the previous Labour administration, including £27 million handed to a bankrupt housing contractor and £19 million spent from reserves to fund a pre-election council tax freeze. The letter came in a week in which Labour and the Conservatives traded blows over which party was responsible for wasting tens of millions of pounds of public money.
Parties in clash over ‘£100m budget cuts’
Labour and the Conservatives blame the other for wasting tens of millions of pounds of public money
Cllr Paul Fisher, the council’s finance lead, said:
“The Labour government’s so-called Fair Funding Review 2.0 has singled out Westminster for one of the biggest real-terms funding cuts anywhere in the country, with £100million being slashed from the council’s core budget.
"To fill the gap, the government is forcing councils like ours to put up council tax and cut local services.
"That is before you count the Labour government’s new family home tax, officially the ‘High Value Council Tax Surcharge’, which disproportionately hits family homes in Westminster hardest… Burnham’s own plans for a land tax would hammer home even more costs for families in our city.”
West End ward’s Cllr Fisher said the council was prepared to submit a formal proposal for an alternative economic path.
“If the government rejects our case, we have the right to take it to a cross-party selector panel at the Local Government Association.”
You can read Tom Foot's article in Westminster Extra in full on their website.
