• AT Camden’s budget-setting Labour saw off token tax proposals by the Conservatives which would be paid for by reducing eligibility for accessible transport for frail or disabled residents.

We also rejected a proposal to cut council consultation on important planning (protecting neighbours from basement excavations, and “assets of community value” like old pubs) work and helping residents shape regeneration in their neighbourhood.

But more than this short-sightedness, if Monday’s budget debate is anything to go by then we saw how the Camden Conservatives are in true denial about the extent of government cuts; £171million in government cuts to Camden’s’ funding based means that by 2018, funding for services will have halved. Camden faces deeper cuts than practically anywhere in the country and a new wave of government cuts is about to start for schools and early years.

The failure of austerity was clear to see as the government mooted even deeper cuts will be imposed after the end of the current round. By early the next decade the cuts will leave us just enough funding only to cover services we are legally obliged to provide – such as social care, looked-after children, and street cleaning/waste collection. So we have made major shifts in what services we provide and how we do them and find ways to increase our income to fill the gap.

Regrettably the crisis also means taxes and charges will have to go up.

Council tax will have to go up by 5 per cent next year, about a pound a week for a Band D household.

But we are honest and clear about the challenges in front of us.

The Conservatives’ denial about adult social care funding means that taxes deferred now will just create a further crisis in the near future.

Camden Labour’s fundamental review of budgets relies very much on technology. Better use of data and digital is saving money right now, a small example the Conservatives also want to scrap in favour of restoring unaddressed letters, is our planning alerts email developed by council officers using data.

This saves £200,000 a year on postage alone, enough to fund a neighbourhood library.
We are making public services more effective by sharing functions with other boroughs, making services easier to use online, and raising income through digital advertising and leasing rooftops to mobile providers to support public spending.

A responsible opposition would recognise, as we have, that balancing the books in this way requires change, sometimes faster than people would like, but is a better way than deeper cuts or storing more problems for the future.

Cllr THEO BLACKWELL
Cabinet Member for Finance, Technology & Growth