CROYDON IN CRISIS: Opposition councillors say residents will be ‘horrified’ by Tory Mayor’s request to government for ‘a staggering’ £136million bail-out
Found out: Jason Perry has admitted he is incapable of ‘fixing the finances’, as he promised when getting elected
Pay more. Get less.
That was the reaction from Croydon Labour this morning in response to Tory Mayor Jason Perry’s latest admission that he is incapable of running a balanced council budget.
Mayor Perry will be facing the first of two scheduled budget-setting meetings at the Town Hall next week, when 2025-2026 Council Tax will also be determined.
In 2023 and again in 2024, Croydon’s Labour councillors opted to abstain and so allow Tory Perry’s unbalanced budgets to pass. In 2023, that meant that Perry was able to push through his 15% Council Tax increase, which he had specifically requested from the then Conservative-run government.
Croydon’s Council Tax will be increasing by the maximum 4.99% allowed this April (a Council Tax increase of 2.99% and a 2% increase in the adult social care precept levy). That will make it higher than at any time before, and is the second highest in London (only Kingston charges more).
The latest doomsday budget spending figure comes on top of what is now being estimated as a £35million-plus overspend expected in the current, 2024-2025 financial year.
Saw it coming: Labour accused Perry of a ‘rose-tinted’ view of the council’s finances. The budget gap has soared from £83m to £98m in the eight weeks since
In a webcast in December, Croydon’s Tory Mayor described this as “a slight overspend”.
Croydon Labour described that then as a “rose-tinted statement”.
Today, making his own statement on social media on a bright red background, Stuart King, the leader of Labour’s 34-strong group of councillors at Croydon Town Hall, said, “Far from fixing the finances, under Mayor Perry the finances are actually getting worse – significantly worse.
“In a year when the council closed four of our libraries and the youth service is facing the axe, residents should not be paying for Tory mismanagement of the finances.”
Croydon Council issued its first Section 114 notice in November 2020, after six years of Labour administration in which King had been a cabinet member under the widely discredited council leader Tony Newman.
Today, Labour said that “residents will be horrified” by Perry’s request to government for “a staggering” £136million bail-out. “The request for help comes as the Mayor has struggled to deal with the consequences of his £35million overspend this year.
“Once again, residents are being told they must pay more but get less.”
Croydon blames increased demand for homelessness help and social care, combined with the rising cost of children’s placements and accommodation, for causing the financial position “to deteriorate significantly”. It claims to have the the third-highest number of people seeking homeless help in the country.
‘Significantly worse’: Labour leader Stuart King is unimpressed by Perry’s performance
The council’s debt – £1.4billion, which it has accrued over the last 15 years or so – will cost £71million in repayments and interest in the next year.
In a statement issued at the weekend, Croydon’s Conservative Mayor as good as admitted that solving the council’s financial crisis is beyond him.
“We cannot solve this alone,” said Perry, who in 2022 was elected on a promise that he would “fix the finances”. “We need a solution to Croydon’s debt, and action on the funding and demand issues facing all councils.”
Perry had previously claimed that Croydon’s woes were unique to the then Labour-run council.
Since he was elected in 2022, Jason Perry has…
- Issued a Section 114 Notice when he could not balance the council budget
- Closed four public libraries and cut other services
- Made wide-ranging cuts to Croydon’s Council Tax relief benefits, hitting many of the borough’s poorest and most vulnerable families
- Run an estimated £35million-plus budget overspend this financial year while predicting an £98million overspend in 2025-2026
- No real progress on Westfield apart from the promise of a couple of fried chicken “kiosks” in the old Allders
- Failed to re-open Purley Pool, as he promised to in his manifesto
- Pushed through a dodgy-looking property deal on Brick by Brick’s last flats
- Sold off council-owned property at millions of pounds below realistic market or development values
- Failed to recover a penny of her pay-off from Jo Negrini or bring legal action against any of those responsible for bankrupting the borough
- And all the while hiking your Council Tax between 2023 and 2024 by 21%.
By the time 2025 bills hit people’s doormats next month, flammable plastic cladding salesman Perry will have increased Council Tax in Croydon to record highs – 27% more than when he took office.
Read more: Croydon In Crisis: budget overspend now close to £100m
Read more: Cash-strapped council’s Mayor wants to give himself a pay rise
Read more: Perry pleads poverty when he has more Council Tax than ever
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Surely this is a joke — Labour, who caused the financial difficulties by mismanaging Croydon’s finances are blaming the Conservative Mayor?! Obviously they have taken their lead from the current Labour so-called government: blame everybody else!
Over to the lefties to respond…….
Oh you are so right! No humility, no responsibility and no repercussions.
while i accept that the conservative mayor of croydon jason perry has mismanaged the finances of croydon council i do not think that croydon labour party is in any position to attack jason perry when croydon labour party was in power and running the council they also bankrupted the council and had to receive a bailout from the then conservative government also tony newman and his fellow labour cabinet had to stand down in disgrace what croydon really needs in future elections is a new political party running the council and not these clapped out main political parties i suggest nigel farage and the reform party nationally the reform party is ahead of the conservative party and labour lets make it so in croydon
Labour. Conservative. Reform. You’ve expressed your support for all three. Who are you going to sing the praises of next week Steven? The SNP? Plaid Cymru? The DUP? John Cartwright defected to the Tories years ago, so you could always take his place as the local Monster Raving Loony candidate, standing on a manifesto of no punctuation or capital letters
dear arthur towcrate you accuse me of supporting many po.litical parties this is simlpy not the truth at the general election in july 2024 i had voted the labour party in fact in all the local elections and mayoral elections before that i had voted the labour party their are only two political parties to vote for in croydon that can win i have now found this out it is either labour or conservative i can tell you mr towcrate that my support will go again to labour in the next mayoral local elections in croydon jason perry conservative mayor of croydon is incapable of running a council budget with a £98 million pounds overspend just like the conservative government was incapable of running the country we need a labour mayor something i have learned about nigel farage he is a hard right wing politician more like the far right afd in germany
Mayor Perry has been dreadful but I don’t see why anyone would pay attention to anything Croydon Labour say about managing finances. They have both been awful and continue to work together to try to keep Croydon under their combined control.
The people of Croydon deserve so much better and Greens are working hard every day to deliver that.
When a Green local authority shows ANY financial or managerial nous, Peter, I will eat my eco friendly, sustainable, unbleached cotton hat. Brighton £51m debt, Bristol monthly bin collections …
So far there has only been one local authority with a majority of Green Councillors, and that’s the current one in Bristol. (Brighton budgets when the Greens were a minority administration were agreed or accepted by Labour and the Conservatives)
Bristol Council have recently put out a consultation to residents asking them how often they want their bins collected and looking at ways of reducing waste and costs. Lots of idiots are screaming about monthly bin collections just because that is one of the options residents are being asked to consider, but it isn’t the only option and it is a consultation.
This is the difference between Greens and the others, we actualy care what residents think and we work with people to try to find solutions. All Local Authorities are struggling because of Conservative Government cuts that Labour aren’t changing. Greens aren’t making false promises to fix council finances when we know that it isn’t going to get better without a change of policy in central Government. But you know that Greens will work with people to make the best decisions we can about the little money Councils have.
Chris, you won’t have room for your hat. You’ll be stuffed from eating all that humble pie for the damage your precious Tories have done to Britain and are still doing to Croydon
Unfortunately All Politicians no matter what’s
Party they come from. They all are absolutely
Lies and only Think of themselves.
I think we need a little more humility from both Labour and Tory councillors on Croydon Council. Let’s face it, BOTH parties have mismanaged the finances in Croydon in recent years.
Can we get a breakdown of the overspent millions and where its been spent?
The council’s figures are, evidently, just guesswork (what was £83m eight weeks ago is now £98m; what was £43m in September, then became £20m by November, is now back to £35m).
But the major overspend areas are often recited: homelessness, adult social care and children’s services. A recent issue has been increased costs of providing school buses for SEND children (so expect that service to be axed soon). Our council’s new contract (starting April) with rubbish contractors Veolia, who were sacked for not being up to the task in 2023, will cost £2.5m mor than the previous contract, for example…
All the figures are published in documents that are now on the council website.
Why is the funding of children’s services and social care, which are strictly regulated statutory services left to local councils? It must be time for this to be taken over by central government and properly funded from general taxation.
I believe services should be administered at a local level wherever possible. We already have one of the most centralised systems of government in Europe. But you rightly mention the need for proper funding. This should be done by Government providing adequate grant to local authorities to enable the services to be carried out effectively. By contrast what we’ve seen over the last decade or more is cuts in Government grant to local authorities.
Is it time for him to step down?……. Oh no he will lose the £82K
It’s £84,000 now, plus his £10,000 undeclared bonus from London Councils.
Does he also receive a generous local government pension?
Can’t Croydon Labour & Conservatives save us the bother and just amalgamate. They are the two sides of the same coin.
Two cheeks of the same arse
You must know about humble pie Arfur – look at the damage Corby did to the Labour Party and the cause of socialism. And look what Labour have done to all of us in Croydon. As the marines say, BOHICA!
Oh dear still in denial that half the debt the Council has is from the previous Tory Regime and that this Jason Perry’s fanboy still goes into a broken record of fantasy to avoid the fact it was his hero who brought Jo Negrini in to “regenerate” Croydon.