BRADFORD WILL BUILD ITS OWN FUTURE

The Government has changed the face of councils for ever. By 2020 they have confirmed they will halt all revenue grant funding for local authorities.

The harsh fact is, in four years’ time, the council will only have half the spending power it had in 2010.

In 2013/14 the Council received £183 million in Revenue Support Grant from the Government.

It drops to zero in 2020/2021.

Currently council tax only covers 42% of what Bradford spends on services.

There will have to be job losses.

What we have already taken out of the budget:

We have taken £250 million out of the budget since 2010. Thus far northern industrial cities like Bradford have been hurt by the Government’s southern focus of its policy-making.

We work hard. We have transformed services, we’ve developed new ways of working, we’ve included more volunteers in what we do. However the Government seems unrelenting in its desire to cut the cord between national and local government. To manage without Government revenue grant by 2020, we have had to go back to what we spend once more, and take another £82 million out. This is on top of the £24 million which was agreed by Full Council last year for 2017/18.

Adult Social Care

There is a national funding scandal around Adult Social Care. Local authorities from across the political spectrum protested last week when the Chancellor was shockingly silent on how the Government intended to fund adult social care. Everyone from the NHS, to charities, care providers and even the Tory Chair of the Health Select Committee say that urgent action is needed to properly fund social care. But Philip Hammond did not listen. Instead we have a situation where adult social care is to be funded mainly by council tax payers, business rate payers and the social care precept.

Bradford has one of the lowest council tax bases in the country, and the lowest in West Yorkshire. Therefore the social care precept of 2% raises just £3 million a year. £3 million is a drop in the ocean for what we really need. Costs are rising rapidly. The National Living Wage, growing demand for services and inflation mean that costs will escalate to almost £39 million by 2020. £3 million doesn’t begin to cover it.

The Government is expecting council taxpayers and local businesses to shoulder more of the cost of social care. In my view they need to come clean and tell people they are making adult social care a postcode lottery dependent on the historic council tax base of that place.

2% in Nottingham for example equates to nearly £1 million more than in Bradford because they have a higher council tax base.

We’ve put a detailed budget together for the next 2 years but if nothing changes on adult social care we know we’ll have just £339 million by 2020 to spend on public services in Bradford, that’s only half the spending power we had in 2010. More services will go. The council will simply become a sub division of the NHS, we will be an adult social care organisation and nothing more. We know our residents expect more than that so we urge Government to listen.

Spending cut headlines for the next 2 years:

The two year budget officers are publishing today includes proposals for:

Taking £8 million a year out of social care

Closing all public toilets apart from next to the Mirror Pool for children’s changing

Transferring Community Halls via asset transfer to communities, failing that they will close

Closing the Ministry of Food

Withdrawing from the direct management of bowling greens

Reducing clean teams and mechanical sweepers

Deleting the post of Deputy Lord Mayor

Cutting 20% of the events and festivals budget

Introducing limited lighting hours of streetlights for non principal roads

Further cuts from the libraries budget where volunteers will increasingly be relied upon

416 jobs will go on top of the 2000 jobs we’ve had to cut over the last 5 years

In spite of the Government cuts we are making a commitment for the next two years to:

Protect the Youth Service – we are the youngest city in the country

Keep all four of our museums open

Keep our Children’s Centres

However by 2020 the Government will take another £50 million from Bradford so I can see no option but to look at how these services and others outside the council’s statutory role can be remodelled.

Nothing can be taken for granted.

All these services are valuable to Bradford. People often say to me, do you not realise how worthwhile that service is? The fact of the matter is that after 6 years of cuts, there is nowhere else to go but to cut into the heart and soul of the things we hold most dear and it is with deep regret that I have to announce these cuts today.

Council Tax Increases

We have no choice but to raise the council tax by 1.99% and implement the social care levy by the Government’s stated maximum of 2%. If we were not to do this we would have to save another £18 million, cutting deeper and sooner into those services that we all value.

Looking to the Future

All that is very grim. I want to be honest about the challenges the district faces but I don’t want people to be overwhelmed. I want to work with Government, with the NHS, with the Voluntary Sector, Businesses and residents to make sure we build a better Bradford together.

When Theresa May came to power she stated her Government would be inclusive. We take her at her word. We have high hopes. We wanted the autumn statement to give a strong indication that she was going to match those words with action. We were disappointed. We still have hope that the Government’s commitment to fund infrastructure will come to pass. Bradford, with 530,000 people, needs to be off the branch line and on the Northern Powerhouse Rail line. Bradford must not be left behind.

On Education the Government is cutting the £7 million Education Services Grant however in spite of this, Education remains our top priority. We have 102,000 children in school. Wherever our children are being educated, whether it be in a maintained school, academy or free school, we want to make sure they get the best education. With that in mind I’m pleased to say that later this week I’ve a meeting with Government Education Minister, Lord Nash, to talk about Education in Bradford. I want to work with Government to get the best for our young people. For the North to see an increase in productivity, Bradford’s children need to be successful, they are the workforce of the future.

Bradford is a big, powerful city. We are bigger than Liverpool, Newcastle and Bristol. We have the youngest population in the UK. Nearly 25% of our population are under the age of 16. We have strong global links with 85% of our businesses trading internationally. That puts us in a strong position for a post Brexit world and we must capitalise on that strength.

But to reach our potential the council cannot achieve this alone. The Government is intentionally re-shaping the state, drastically reducing the size of local government. So today I’m calling on businesses, the voluntary sector, churches, mosques and faith groups, schools and residents to join with us in creating a better Bradford. I will not let our challenges dim our ambitions but such great ambition can only be realised by working together.