council campaigns for "The Tories had cleaned us out"
One of the unsung Labour victories of the May local elections was in the south London borough of Merton, where a hard-line Tory administration was narrowly beaten, giving the Labour group an overall majority of one vote.
Winning the election, however, is only the start of the problems for Labour, who inherit a bank balance emptied to keep the Poll Tax low this year, and the certainty of a huge crisis in 1991.Socialist Outlook talked to Clir GEOFF MARTIN, Chair of Finance in London's newest Labour council, about the situation they face. You have already been attacked in the columns of the Sun and Dally Telegraph over the now councll's admission that Poll Tax next year will rise to £550. Why Is this? Are the Labour group embarking on a spending binge?
The approach of the group has been to be honest with the people of the borough on the situation we face, the scope of the financial crisis. We were up front on this throughout the election campaign. The attack from the Sun and Telegraph is pretty weak compared to some of the treatment they have dished out to other councils.
I have compared the Tory actions to those of drunken pirates knowing they were about to get caught - wildly drinking the spirits, smoking the cigars and throwing the cash overboard. To keep the Poll Tax down to £279 this year instead of the f450 it should have been, they have spent £23 million from the council's balances, effectively cleaning out the whole revenue reserve. This is before the results of any of this year's local goverment pay settlements are decided.
What this means is that even if we do nothing, we already face at least a £550 Poll Tax next year simply to maintain the present Tory budget.
Another interesting point is that the Merton Tories were spectacularly unsuccessful at getting any help from revenue support grant, while Westminster and Wandsworth both did Page 8
FEATURES "Fair Deal' What support will Kinnock give new Labour counclls? very well. Wandsworth got £570 per head revenue support grant this year, while Merton got just £320. That gap can't be accounted for by differences in needs: the two boroughs are very similar. So there is a crisis, and it's not one of our making. What scope have you got to make changes In the Tory budget this year?
We certainly intend to scrap some large elements in the capital programme - some roadbuilding schemes. That will free up some revenue funding which would have been allocated to them, and which we hope to redirect into improving services. But all the time we're aware that we will be facing Poll Tax capping next year.
We have also looked at some of the grandiose schemes the Tories were proposing: the redevelopment of the Wimbledon Theatre was going to cost mega-millions when it eventually got off the ground, and we're looking to claw back the money from things like that and put it into front line services. The Tories' policies on housing were quite distinctive as well, weren't they?
Council tenants in Merton faced a 44 percent increase in rents this year - the biggest in London. The reason is quite simple: for years the Tories have been siphoning off money
from the housing revenue account as a "surplus" and putting it into the general rates fund to keep the rates low. Then the government decided they would ringfence the housing revenue accounts.
The government intended to stop Labour authorities from putting money from general rates in to subsidise council rents. But Merton got caught out from the other side, so £7 mil lion was lost immediately, because the government have simply clawed back that much by not paying it to us in housing benefits. As a result the tenants face a huge rent increase, virtually no council maintenance, and the knowledge that for the last four years they have been ripped off to the tune of £6 million a year to keep down the rates for the nobs who live up Wimbledon Hill. What scope do you have to change this hous ing policy?
It's an area we are going to be looking at. We are tied to this year's housing revenue ac count: but what we will try to do is shift some elements that are in the housing revenue account back into the general fund, and use this to keep the rents down next year. But the way they have pegged down housing in Merton is incredible.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 25, June 1990
overtake everything else, and that the vul- Workers will be crucial to 'Fair Deal' campagn SHIRLEY MCCARDELL is one of a formed by the ex-chairs of the City Party.
Looking a little wider, there is the issue of social services taking on responsibility for community care under the new NHS Bill. What Is the Tory record on this front?
Not good! We have the added problem of an extremely right wing District Health Authority chaired by Harry Cowd, the former Tory leader of the council, who pioneered its entire privatisation programme almost single-handed. What we can expect in terms of joint planning between the new Labour council in Merton and the new business-style health authority to be set up from the autumn under the Bill, and chaired by Harry Cowd, is very limited.
The fact that the money from central government for community care - we still don't know how much it will be - is unlikely to be ringfenced certainly not if the government gets its way) will cause more major problems. We are starting from a very backward position here: we don't even have joint care planning teams set up. Things are going to have to move very quickly, with the fear, of course, that the budget crisis will nerable people depending on us for community care will be the victims. Is the situation as bad for education?
The latest figures just released show that Merton had the biggest growth in education budget last year of any authority. The reason for this is that after the council became hung last autumn we pushed through - in tandem with some of the independents who held the balance on the council - a major expansion of education services. The budget itself has been quite well protected and the level of funding is relatively high.
Education takes up the majority of our
minority of Manchester councillors
who have taken a position in the
ruling Labour group of opposing cuts
and implementation of the poll tax.
Eight candidates with this position
stood in the May elections, seven of
them declaring in their election
material that they opposed further
cuts and would not pay the poll tax,
and that they would support others
who could not or would not pay. Shir-
ley was one of the successful can-
didates, and spoke to Socialist Outlook
Why was Labour Against The Cuts And Poll
Tax (LACPT) formed?
It was established in 1989 to protect the
1984 election manifesto which puts equal op-
portunities to the fore on all our policies, and
to campaign for a retum to a position of no
further cuts by the local authority. It was SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 25, June 1990
FEATURES NGO SAVEOUR PUBLIC SERVICES NALG ko Pirvig VO NT budget, so whatever happens there will be a powerful lobby leaning on us, telling us to give whatever money there is to education: but there are competing needs, two of which are housing and social services. Do you wish you were able to set up a whole series of GLC-style specialist units for women, ethnic minorities and so on?
No. There is no intention in Merton to go down that road. I certainly take on board all the questions of equal opportunities that are being raised, but I think we have to tell the management to implement these policies or Fighting back in