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Perry is now asking Croydon public how to fix financial mess

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CROYDON IN CRISIS: After issuing the first pre-emptive S114 Notice in British history, the borough’s £81,000 per year Mayor is using a budget survey to justify future cuts to services. By WALTER CRONXITE, political editor

Something missing: the council propaganda department has airbrushed Mayor Perry from their latest press release

Bereft of ideas – beyond increasing Council Tax well above the 5per cent per year cap, and seeking another £100million-plus government bail-out – Jason Perry, elected as Mayor of Croydon just six months ago when he claimed to have all the answers, is now asking the borough’s residents if they have any bright ideas for fixing the council’s finances.

The £81,000 per year Mayor effectively admitted defeat last month when he agreed to the issuing of a Section 114 Notice, saying the borough couldn’t balance its budget. The S114 Notice was not issued for this financial year, however, but for next year, 2023-2024.

It is Croydon’s third S114 Notice in two years, but it is the first pre-emptive S114 Notice ever to be issued by a local authority in England and Wales.

The Conservative Mayor and his cabinet stooges have been quick to admit defeat over the cash-strapped council’s finances and have been keen to pin the blame on the bullies and buffoons in the previous Labour-run administration.

Yet even the council’s appeal to the public for bright ideas to be able to deliver a balanced budget in 2023-2024 – which they say they cannot do – confirms that it was the previous Tory administration that left debts of £1billion which began the rot, as 12 years of Conservative austerity have pushed so many councils to the brink of bankruptcy, and beyond.

On Monday, Perry and his Conservative council will hold a special meeting to consider the latest Section 114 Notice, as is required by law.

The press release issued from the propaganda bunker at Fisher’s Folly to confirm the meeting was unusual in that it never mentioned the Conservative Mayor once. Since he was elected in May, barely a day is allowed to pass without the council’s press office issuing some statement or another which has, shoe-horned into it, some drivel from Perry, however tenuous a role the Mayor might actually have with the matter at hand.

Yet here was a rare official council PR in that it failed to include any cheery comment from part-time Perry in which he promised to listen to residents and take any kind of decisive action.

“The Extraordinary Council Meeting will take place on Monday 12 December at 6.30pm, with a live public webcast. The papers for the meeting have been published on the council’s website,” the council’s spin doctors announced – the agenda and reports can be found by clicking here.

“Croydon Council has already set out a broad range of actions it is taking to tackle its challenges in its medium-term financial strategy, which went before the council’s cabinet on November 30,” the press release said.

“Local people are being asked to give their views on the council’s plans in a budget engagement.”

In presenting the council’s “budget engagement”, the council says, “Croydon Council has been facing serious financial challenges. Last month, the council said it would be asking the government for a new package of support because without extra help, it would be unable to set a balanced budget in 2023-2024 or for the next four years…

“To balance its budget, the council would need to reduce its spending by £130million next financial year alone – which is just not realistic out of a budget of £300million.” In that statement alone, Perry’s Tories offer an admission that Croydon is vastly underfunded by central government.

And those debts? “We also have extraordinary levels of debt – Croydon borrowed £545million over three years from 2017 and now owes £1.6billion.”

Do the sums: £1.6billion minus £545million equals… £1.05billion. Very close to the debt left in 2014 by the previous Tory council administration in which Perry was a cabinet member.

“This,” the council has now discovered, “costs us £47million a year to service before we can spend any money on services for local people.” One of the suggestions that Croydon has made to Michael Gove’s Levelling Up department is that they should write-off all the borough’s debts.

The council’s budget “survey” is full of loaded questions – such as asking residents to rank the council’s services in order of importance, to help the Tories justify their cuts to statutory provision including libraries, adult social care and children’s services when they happen.

Leading questions: the budget engagement will be used to justify Tory cuts to services. But are there other areas where costs might be cut?

There are questions such as: “Is there anything that we currently spend money on that you think we shouldn’t, or anything that you think we could do differently?”

Hmmm… well, there is the £81,000 a year paid to the part-time Mayor (who has managed to take on additional directorships since being elected). And what is it exactly that the chief executive does? And what about all that money squandered on external lawyers and legal advice that is then ignored and left unactioned..?

If you want to participate in Mayor Perry’s sham budget consultation, you can do so by clicking here.

Read more: Council forced to issue 3rd bankruptcy notice in just two years
Read more: ‘There is no solution in sight’ warns council’s finance chief
Read more: Tory blame game over bankruptcy points finger at Westminster
Read more: ‘Uncertainty faced by all local authorities is unprecedented’

 


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