Dear Editor,
On 21 December Wembley Matters posted a story based on Labour spin.
Stating that Brent is to get an increase of 9.9% in “core funding”.
Sadly this is not true.
The Labour Government has juggled Grants and other Government funding and came up with a figure for Brent’s ‘core spending power’.
The 9,9% assumes that the Council imposes the full 5% Council Tax rise. So the 9.9% core spending increase includes the extra local people will need to pay as part of the latest Council Tax rise and at a briefing with Finance Officers we were told that the Council Tax rise represent about a 3rd of this 9.9%. So only 6.6% - and NO Labour did not simply invert the numbers. The Labour Deputy Leader was simply not telling the truth.
The situation is even worse than this. 3 months ago we were told the overspend this year stands at £9 million. Now the Cabinet is being told on Monday the most up to date overspend is £12.5 million. An increase of £3.5 million!
And the reason for the £3.5 million is mostly in social care - care packages more expensive because providers are passing on the higher costs of energy and staffing. And why is cost employees going up? - because Labour hiked up employers National Insurance. So Local Government is being hit the same way as the hospitality sector and any other service reliant on people to provide it.
Because these extra costs are recurring year on year the so called 9.9% (actually only 6.6%) has already been wiped out.
So the Brent Labour claims that things would get better under a Labour Government are pure fiction.
The Lead Member for Finance is clearly completely out of her depth. Tried to mislead us on the true figures, has no control of the Brent Budget and should resign or be sacked.
All the best,
Paul Lorber (Leader of Brent Council Liberal Democrat Group)
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