Brighton & Hove City Council
Green Group of councillors
PRESS STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Greens urge Council to fight back against austerity
May 10th, 2015
Greens this week slammed HM Treasury for its “short-sighted and callous” pursuit of cuts to local government in face of mounting evidence from local authorities that vital front-line services will be cut.
The move comes following the Treasury’s recent reply to a letter delivered by the Greens in February, which outlined the cuts facing Brighton & Hove over the next 5 years. The Treasury stated that Councils must “continue playing their part” in cuts to public services.
The letter from the Treasury can be viewed in full here:Treasury response (1)and the Green’s letter from February can be seen here: Letter to the Treasury
Responding to the letter, convenor of the Green group of councillors Phélim Mac Cafferty said:
“The Conservative government seems intent on continuing to strip local councils of vital resources in the name of austerity. The notion that local government cuts are essential to economic recovery is inherently wrong. Instead, cuts of this magnitude threaten our very ability to support our residents as well as build skills and resilience among our young people. Austerity is an economic and social time bomb, which is set to overload our health service and impoverish future generations.
“The Treasury would rather focus on the details of the allocation process for an ever shrinking pot of money to deliver vital services like social care, public health, schools, transport and libraries. By deflecting attention to how the pie is cut, they hope to distract councils from the fact that the pie is getting smaller year on year.
“While we agree that a fair allocation system is a worthwhile goal, we cannot ignore the fact that local government is already starved of resources, and this situation will only get worse. Further cuts will be disastrous for the city of Brighton & Hove.
“Our protests alone may not achieve immediate change, but giving up the fight altogether- as our local Labour council has done- is far worse. It has never been more important that we continue to stand up for our communities who will be hurt by cuts and make our voice heard”.