austerity in Local Government

Jeremy Corbyn promises to fix ‘blighted’ coastal towns

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The recent (late September) release of the English Indices of Deprivation 2019 has confirmed yet again that some of the most deprived places in England are small coastal neighbourhoods. It looks like Jeremy Corbyn has wised up to this issue. According to this article.

Coastal communities have been “blighted” by “nine years of vicious austerity and Tory cuts”, Jeremy Corbyn has said in a speech.

Speaking in Hastings, East Sussex, the Labour leader also pledged to end the “evil of in-work poverty”.

But the Conservatives say seaside areas can benefit from a £3.6bn fund.

BBC analysis this week found that workers living in costal parts of Britain earn £1,600 less on average per year than those living inland.

The research also found that two-thirds of coastal areas had seen a real-terms fall in wages since 2010.

In his speech, Mr Corbyn said poverty and inequality were “not inevitable”. 

“In the fifth-richest country in the world, no-one should be forced to rely on a food bank to feed their family, no-one should be sleeping rough on our streets, and nobody should be working for poverty wages,” he said.

Citing parliamentary research, he said one in five adults in Hastings and Rye could be in receipt of universal credit when it is fully rolled out.

Council tax to rise across England as austerity hits hard

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Not surprising but nonetheless depressing!

Almost all councils in England plan to increase council tax from April and three-quarters intend to raise it above 2.75%, research reveals.

The maximum rise allowed without a local referendum is 2.99%. Similar proportions plan to raise charges and fees.

Despite council tax bills soaring, many residents face further cuts in services. Most councils warned that they would be reducing a range of services, from adult social care to libraries and recycling.

The annual survey by the Local Government Information Unit thinktank found that cuts were increasingly visible and that after eight years of austerity – which has cost English councils 40% of their central funding – half of councils felt cuts were now “negatively affecting relationships with citizens”.

Cuts to services such as pothole repair, waste collection, school crossing patrols and libraries proved especially unpopular, the research found. Last week Somerset and Northamptonshire county councils reversed winter gritting cuts after a public outcry when untreated roads caused several car accidents during the recent cold snap.

One in 20 councils said they were concerned that funding cuts were now so deep that they would struggle to deliver the legal minimum level of services. Almost one in 10 anticipate legal challenges from the public against proposed cuts in service provision.