As your Labour Councillors, we promised to progress Labour values at Waltham Forest Council. We never take being in power for granted and we will never be complacent. We are extremely proud of our record so far but we know we can always do more. Being a Labour-run progressive council means always fighting harder for residents and making sure that we are doing everything possible to provide a fairer future for resident of Waltham Forest.
But just like many of you, we are facing tough choices. Tough choices when it comes to finances in particular. Over the past 13 years we have lost £120 million from our budget due to intentional Conservative government cuts. We know this government thinks we have ‘fat to trim’ and it’s because of this very belief that we are being forced to raise council tax by 4.99%, along with 75% of councils in England and Wales.
The pressure on our services keeps increasing but government support has not kept up. This is not a decision we ever take lightly, but if we want to keep providing the services that we know our residents need and rely on, we have to do it. We know it’s our essential services which save lives and improve the quality of life for residents, day in day out.
Our budget setting is coming up soon and I wanted to set out to you, our members, the messages we will take to the doorstep about how Waltham Forest Labour are using the council budget to create a Fairer Future. We will send a series of these emails over the next few weeks to illustrate our core beliefs and values when it comes to providing services for the residents of our borough.
As a Labour Council, we work every day to produce council services which help every resident to thrive.
So many residents are just about surviving right now, whether that’s due to inflation, the cost-of-living crisis, a hospital badly needing rebuilding or a Tory government which is doing nothing about those issues. In response, we are doing everything we can to make sure that residents are not just surviving but are thriving in our borough.
Our residents have always been ambitious, and we see our role as rising to that challenge. This means radical action on housing, with our Affordable Housing Commission. We have invested £4.6 million into our cost of living campaign. We are busy working on our Health Inequalities work, to make sure that no matter where you are in the borough, you have whatever you need to live a healthy life. We are bringing a university to the borough, with the University of Portsmouth getting ready to arrive here in Waltham Forest. I don’t need to remind you about how proud we are of Mini Holland and our city-leading Climate Action Plan to get us to net zero. We protected and improved our Children and Family Centres when so many others had to close. A few months ago we used the windfall from North London Waste Authority to insulate homes, lowering bills for good.
In these times, we know value for money is very important. That’s why we are proud to be the 5th lowest council tax per dwelling in Outer London. Despite having to raise council tax, that means an extra £1.44 or extra £2.22 a week for 90% of residents and we have expanded our Council Tax Support scheme.
We also know that to thrive, we may need to do some things differently. Our new approach to local neighbourhoods means that we want residents to have everything they need to live a safe, happy, and healthy life only 15 minutes away from their homes. We are also taking a closer look at our customer services work to make sure it is meeting the needs of residents and we are focusing on our young people to ensure they feel a part of the future of our borough and have recently rolled out two new youth hub pilots.
Your Labour run council is using its investment to ensure that our priorities are funded, and our borough has the financial support to thrive.
We know that a great place to live is one where the council is investing in a better borough. Waltham Forest Council is investing £533 million in our communities over the next five years. This money, whilst also supporting our plans, will also invest in the community with 1,100 local jobs and 260 apprenticeships.
Waltham Forest Labour is extremely excited about all of the new positive changes to our borough – whether that’s Soho Theatre Walthamstow, £17 million in investment into culture in Walthamstow (including £4.4 million for Vestry House), £14 million on a new accessible entrance to Leyton station or the new lido.
One of our major council priorities is tackling the climate emergency and to show that we believe in acting fast and acting fairly, we have committed £50 million to decarbonise council homes. We also know that we need to be responsive to residents’ concerns. We are investing £5 million in better street lighting, more electric vehicle charging and repairing potholes – all issues residents have raised.
Despite the fact that we have lost £120 million from our budget since 2010, we know that investing in our borough is proving to residents that we believe in our vision. We will continue to do that in spite of Tory cuts.
Alongside our financial investment, we are also using every opportunity to lobby this Tory government for a fair deal. This means fairer funding, to ensure we don’t have to pass the burden onto residents even more, or to finally have a rebuilt Whipps Cross hospital – something we have been campaigning on for a very long time. We have also recently had to call on government to take action protecting asylum seekers and spoke to the media in strong terms about Home Office failings. We have been repeatedly writing to ministers and demanding answers and we won’t stop until we have delivered for residents.
Standing up for residents often means working beyond our borders, and this week I was delighted to join with all London Labour Council Leaders to thank the Mayor of London for his plan to fund free school meals for primary school children for one year and call on the National Government to extend this to the rest of the country. We are already working with our schools and catering services to be ready to roll this out in Waltham Forest in September but we know that every child should benefit and want the national government to fund it.
We have a huge number of exciting new projects happening across the borough but some of the work I’m most proud of is our response to the Tory cost of living crisis.
As part of the council meeting, we increased our council tax support scheme. We have been forced by the Tory government to raise council tax by 5% but eligible residents can now see 85% of their bill paid by the council, meaning that those with the broadest shoulders can support those who aren’t as able to pay. If you think you may be eligible, you can find out more here: https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/council-tax/discounts-exemptions-and-reductions/council-tax-support
This increase in support takes the total amount of cost-of-living support to over £5.5 million and means we are able to support thousands of residents through this really difficult time. As well as the £300,000 for breakfast clubs, we also announced that we have won £4 million for our Children and Family Centres and Cllr Alistair Strathern, Cabinet member for Children and Young People, announced that we have invested an additional £1million in children’s social care. We have also made the vital investments into Adult Social Care that the national government has refused to pay for, so that our older and vulnerable residents are able to live safely and independently.
Over the winter months we’re supporting over 50 Warm Spaces across the borough and we are providing energy advice and support at those spaces and at other venues such as libraries. We also continue to support households with energy-saving measures to lower bills for good. We have been creative with new sources of funding, such as the North London Waste Authority money, and made sure that the new funding is directly straight into essential support, such as home insulation.
In these extremely difficult times, we have a council budget which is on the side of every resident. We have stepped up when the government has stepped back. Our budget is the best possible response to terrible Tory choices. Waltham Forest Council is in a healthy financial position because of careful financial planning and we will continue to do this, because we know that it’s your hard earned money we are spending.