There’s a protest planned outside Croydon Town Hall tomorrow for the first of two council budget meetings
Fund Croydon fairly: hundreds gathered ahead of Town Hall meetings last year, where the Tories imposed a 15% Council Tax hike and Labour abstained. That fight continues tomorrow
You pay more. You get less.
Long-suffering residents will be protesting outside Croydon Town Hall tomorrow evening, and again the following Wednesday, March 6, as the borough’s Mayor, piss-poor Jason Perry, looks to push through what will amount to a 21% Council Tax increase over two years.
The cash-strapped council’s budget-setting meetings drew large protests 12 months ago, when the Tory Mayor was given permission by Conservative Government minister Michael Gove to hike Council Tax by 15%. The move was eventually passed at the Town Hall with support from Perry’s Tory councillor colleagues, while Croydon’s Labour councillors feebly abstained.
This year, Mayor Perry is seeking a 4.99% Council Tax hike, which will compound that increase over two years to 21%. At the same time, Perry wants to increase the amount of public cash he pays to his mates and allies.
In his budget for 2024-2025, Perry’s still looking to cut £23millions in council spending, by closing libraries, cutting back on street cleaning and further reducing adult social care.
The residents’ first protest will gather outside the Town Hall from 5.30pm tomorrow, February 28.
The £82,000 per year part-time Mayor is proposing certain increases for the most senior council staff now, with a review during the year of whether the recommendations of a supposedly “independent” panel should be implemented.
And under Perry’s proposals, while Council Tax is going up and services are being cut, his seven cabinet members would all get paid almost £40,000 per year for doing… well, nothing much really.
The Labour group of councillors, the largest group at the Town Hall, could vote down Mayor Perry’s budget. But these are the same “opposition” group who abstained over last year’s 15% Council Tax rise, and now there’s a couple of problems.
It was Labour who were in office when the council’s finances crashed in 2020, and several senior councillors were part of the administration under Tony Newman, Simon Hall and Alison Butler and allowed their mismanagement to happen.
As well as the local problem, Labour has a national problem, too.
Rachel Reeves, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, says she will follow Tory financial policies and if she and Keir Starmer form the next Government after the General Election, she will allow no additional expenditure which doesn’t comply with her “fiscal rules”. That means continuing with the austerity measures that have forced Croydon and so many other local councils into bankruptcy and has left local government in this country on its knees.
In Croydon, Stuart King and Callton Young, the current Labour leadership at the council, have put down an amendment to the Tory Mayor’s budget which seeks to reduce allowances to Perry’s loyal cabinet members. They think it’s very clever, because if the Tories vote against it, they will be voting in favour of lining their own pockets.
Others are not so convinced. “It’s a pathetic document,” one of tomorrow night’s protest organisers said of the Labour amendment.
“It proposes a saving of just £220,000 by reducing the special allowances of certain senior councillors, though not generally the Labour ones, and reallocating the money to one or two frontline services.”
Croydon’s Green councillors, Ria Patel and Esther Sutton, have put down an amendment of their own, proposing an inquiry into reductions in senior officials’ salaries and an immediate 50% cut in the allowances of cabinet and shadow cabinet members. The savings would be invested in various green initiatives, though the amount of money involved is relatively small – just £160,000 per year.
“No one on the council is effectively pursuing what is really needed,” according to David White, from the Croydon Assembly group organising tomorrow’s protest.
“That is to say: a campaign for restoration of government grant to councils, and payment to Croydon of a special grant to pay off its accumulated debts. Without this, the interest payments alone on what Croydon owes are too high for the council to sustain even the most basic level of services.”
Mayor Perry’s budget proposes an additional £38million capitalisation – effectively, more borrowing from government – for this year and, unmentioned in this budget, they are suggesting another £38million for each of the next three financial years, to use the money just to offset interest and loan repayments. It’s not a “balanced” budget at all.
“If you can, please come to the protest on Wednesday,” White said.
“We need to end the saga of Croydon residents constantly being asked to pay more for less.”
Read more: You can depend on Croydon Labour: they always let you down
Read more: Here’s the Mayor and 33 Croydon Tory councillors who THREE times voted in favour of hitting you with a 15% Council Tax hike
Read more: And here are the Labour councillors who broke their word over the 15% tax hike and abandoned the people of Croydon
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
So what is Mayor Perry going to award himself? Is he really on performance related pay and now owes the Council Tax Payers of Croydon a massive bundle?
Perry has opted to stick on £82,000, rather than twist…
You say £82,000, but seeing that he works part-time, his hourly rate must be, ooh, £200?