Afternoon:
15°c
Three London councils were today accused of “hoarding” hundreds of millions of pounds while making cuts.
Cabinet Minister Eric Pickles singled out Labour-run Greenwich for sitting on £133 million, Tory-run Wandsworth, which has £105 million in the bank, and Kensington and Chelsea for hoarding £112 million.
Outside London, Crawley in West Sussex had enough cash in the vault to pay its bills for two years, he said. Essex, Hampshire, Kent and Surrey Heath were listed by the minister as sitting on piles of unspent money.
“I'm sure many residents would be shocked to find local authorities still have over £10 billion in their piggy banks when they are hearing weekly scare stories of service and job cuts,” said Mr Pickles.
He said some councils were acting like “Fort Knox” when the money would be better used to address the financial crisis.
Town hall chiefs are warning that a 28 per cent cut in their budgets over four years will inevitably hit frontline services and claim 140,000 jobs will be axed next year alone. More than 50 have reserves of £50 million or more and 165 have the cash equivalent of one fifth of their annual budget.
Councils are obliged by law to keep money in reserve in case of emergencies but Mr Pickles argues that most do not need to hold back more than 2.5 per cent of their budgets.
Labour's shadow local government secretary Caroline Flint said: “Eric Pickles's call for councils to run down their emergency reserves shows just how bad the consequences of his decision to frontload cuts to local government spending will be.”
Reader views (2)
However, it would appear that Wandsworth Council can afford to pay £13 million for a hospital building, which they will then hand over (free of charge?) to ARK and the Neighbourhood Schools Campaign for a secondary school which is not needed and which would be in one of the most affluent areas.
In the meantime a 4 year old is expected to travel more than twice as far as the NSC say is unreasonable for their children to travel because, although there are surplus secondary places, there is a shortage in some areas of primary places.
Wandsworth is also planning to save about £100,000 by closing a library with community facilities in the most deprived part of Battersea.
Either they have the money or they don't but they should not be taking it away from the poor to pander to the selfish rich.
- janee, London, 02/12/2010 17:22
Report abuse
Suggesting that Councils keep a reserve of just 2.5% of their annual budget is like suggesting householders keep a bank balance of of just one weeks pay - improvident and reckless.
- Dick Cliffe, Penzance UK, 02/12/2010 00:26
Report abuse
