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Nottingham Labour

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Group of East Midlands Labour leaders (Including Baggy Shankur and David Mellen with candidate Claire Ward

The East Midlands looking into the future

The East Midlands Combined County Authority has officially launched yesterday, 20th March 2024. This was an historic day that marks the endpoint of lots of hard work. Nottingham City Council, a Labour-led local authority, has been at the forefront of pushing for a devolved authority that give access to more funding for Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby and Derbyshire.

water, building, sky, paving

Exceptional Financial Support

Nottingham City Council’s request for Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) has been agreed in principle by the government.

This does not mean that we are being bailed out by the government or that the government is granting us extra funding. It merely is permission to use our own money in a different way. It will allow us to use the money raised by selling off property and assets, to cover the day to day running costs of the council.

Nottingham Labour: PM should get his own house in order

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Nottinghamshire today (4 Jan) and criticised Nottingham City Council for the financial challenges it faces. Rather than accept the blame for government underfunding of local authorities, he trotted out the same tired old lines about Labour mismanagement. As always, he is totally wide of the mark.

The people of Nottingham put their faith in the Labour-run council by electing 51 labour councillors out of 55 in last year’s local election – while the Conservatives failed to win a single seat. This speaks volumes… and gives our council a bigger democratic mandate than the currently unelected Prime Minister who has yet to put himself before the public in a General Election. We all know the outcome that this will bring this year.

The recent Covid Inquiry into the PPE fiasco has further shown that when it comes to wasting public money, mismanagement and poor decision-making, this government is in a league of its own.

Robin Hood Energy was closed by the council three years ago – we have rectified our mistakes, but this government continues to cause chaos.

Rishi Sunak should listen to the Conservative leader of Nottinghamshire County Council who, alongside 25 other Conservative Leaders, wrote to him in early December saying that failure to provide additional funding would mean England’s largest councils would face the prospect of painful reductions to frontline services, raising council tax to the maximum permitted, and using reserves at unsustainable levels to balance budgets.

Raising council tax to pay for adult social care simply puts the burden back on to the people of Nottingham. Rather than sorting out the broken care system, as the Conservatives have promised to do for the last decade, the Prime Minister pass the buck to Nottingham people.

The reduction of funding from government, £100 million less every year since 2013 in the case of Nottingham City, combined with rising costs of adults and children’s social care is pushing local services to breaking point. We cannot afford to wait and need a General Election now.

Years of underfunding are hurting local councils

Nottingham Labour have today (18 December) accepted the Section 114 Report issued to Nottingham City Council by the Chief Finance Officer – and agreed the next steps required to reach a balanced in-year budget.

This is a difficult day for Nottingham, but the elected members of the city are committed to working with Chief Finance Officer to provide a credible response to the Section 114, so that we can be part of the solution.