Budget setting - Camden 2013/14

Tomorrow Camden Council sets its budget for the year to come. The Council is not in an easy position with steep reductions in government funding and difficulties raising funds locally in a fair way because of a Council Tax system that does not reflect differences in wealth across the borough, which sadly was not improved by the last government. Central government cuts do need to be challenged in a united way by local political parties.

However, Camden Greens would have liked to see a much more participatory approach to making decisions on how to use funding we have and to obtain the creative input of residents - NGOs, business, community groups etc. Its important that we work together to think how best to spend money and raise funds even if this is about raising council taxes and charges such as on second cars or for clearing garden waste for bigger homes. We mustn't forget that some can afford to make a bigger contribution and I know some that would be happy to do so.

We would like to see the Council do more to address what we see as the key issues: protecting the vulnerable affected by welfare reform and safeguarding our diverse communities; supporting small business and creating local jobs in Camden, ensuring a sound foundation for a sustainable local economy; and ensuring that Camden plays its part to reduce its carbon emissions, reducing our exposure to higher fuel prices in the future.

In practical terms, the Council could do more to protect the vulnerable from the impacts of welfare reform, more money needs to be set aside for the next couple of years to mitigate the impacts including of lost Council Tax benefit for the poorest, and to go to community centres, luncheon clubs, advice centres and mental health services.

It should develop innovative schemes like setting up a responsible landlord scheme, so that good landlords have fewer voids but in return charge lower rents and increase energy efficiency; a library fund to allow libraries with innovative proposals to come forward and secure some funding; and a small fund to examine the potential for co-housing with more shared space and less individual space combatting isolation whilst addressing our housing shortage.

It should put a greater emphasis on creating local jobs and sustaining our local economy which will bring in more revenue. The Council should take the lead in a street by street insulation scheme seeking to ensure that residents can take advantage of efficiencies of scale, support social enterprises working on draught proofing for example, seek to ensure small businesses get more of the benefits of public procurement, and support a sectoral hub of green businesses like those involved in construction and retrofits. It can also create a culture of pride and creativity in terms of innovation, including through using a Dragon’s Den type competition, a town team fund and in innovation fund, levering in money from others.

In terms of the Council itself, in line with the equalities agenda, pay ratios between the Chief Executive and the lowest paid should be reduced to 8:1 over time. Camden should be an exemplar in terms of equalities. Job shares should be promoted over redundancies, which have been affecting the lower paid the hardest. This means more time for family and lesiure, and avoids the huge personal cost as well as financial costs to the Council of redundancy. There is more to be done and we call on the Labour administration to take on board these proposals.

What next with welfare benefits reform?

On 14th February, I attended one of the most powerful and moving meeting I have been to as a Councillor. It really hit home, to everyone there, what welfare reform will mean for our communities. Thanks to residents groups for organising the event.

As we all know, Camden has for a long time been a vibrant place with a good social mix and strong communities. However, we are now seriously at risk of losing this and ending up with a borough which is the preserve of the wealthy with poorer people pushed further and further out of town. This begins to look fearfully like Paris where the suburbs erupt in violence with unsurprising frequency.

With high property prices and unaffordable rents, this has already begun. Welfare Benefits reform add to this problem, with the cap on universal credit making it unaffordable for those on low incomes and not in social housing. Its not just a question of not getting quite enough housing benefit, but of getting much less than is needed to rent a home in most parts of London. And its not just the 761 families the Council talks about, as its many more people without dependents. On top of this the bedroom tax, reductions in Housing Benefit for people with spare rooms, is likely to push those in social housing out of Camden too, as people with spare rooms who haven’t been able to downsize will be left with unaffordable rents. It’s a half baked policy as those who could downsize like older people are exempt.

So what can be done about this? On the one hand, we must campaign together for a humane benefits system that puts value on community ties, family links and diversity. In the longer run, such policies reduce the burden on the state. On the other we must campaign for stronger regional policies that mean there are both jobs and housing in other cities. And on a local level we must ensure the most vulnerable are protected, even if this means an increase in the Council Tax or charges which impact on those who can afford to pay.

We can also do more to create and free up housing, which means a more humane policy to encourage downsizing, as well as building new affordable housing where it doesn’t reduce the well-being of existing residents. Simply building more and more is also unsustainable. The Council's policy to give people incentives to downsize is a good one, recognising that leaving ones home is rarely a positive experience. But we also need to think about what older people may want. The Greens would like to see Camden Council supporting co-housing arrangements with more shared space including for visiting relations. We also simply need better systems for flat swapping of social housingand stopping the conversion of flats to single homes. This may ameliorate the impacts but will not reduce them sufficiently or soon enough.

So at this moment in time, we also need to protest and push for halting the implementation of the Welfare Reform Act until these issues are addressed, whilst at the same time being clear that at a local level the most vulnerable must be protected.