Speech to Council - 22/02/07

When we talk about our budget, we all know that what we are talking about is providing value for money for residents.

We made a promise to the residents of this borough that Council Tax would not rise by more than 2.5% over the next 3 years.

We made a promise that we would deliver good services, and that we would make efficiency savings wherever possible.

This budget helps to deliver all of this.

I’ve stood in this chamber on many occasions and talked about the importance of financial planning and good budgeting. It's essential to us. The budget before us tonight is not important because of the process of agreeing it. It is important because its what lets us deliver better services:

  • In the past year, its what’s enabled us to open new libraries;
  • its what helped our residents recycle over a quarter of this borough’s domestic waste last year;
  • and what helped our school children achieve their best ever GCSE results

When we started this process in July, I set out the 5 priorities that our three year budget was to be based upon. I outlined that we had to work towards a borough where:

  • Council tax rose by no more than 2.5%;
      • where services constantly improved and residents received excellent customer care from the Council;
          • where the green agenda is at the forefront of everything we do;
            • where we are confident that we do everything in our power and influence to improve the quality of life of our residents;
            • and where people in our communities can have their say on the things that are important to them

Since I made that speech, we’ve started work on all of these things, but there is a lot of work ahead of us.

As the Audit Commission’s findings this week have proven, we have a track record of delivering improvements across the board

  • This year, we’re investing £2.4 million in new and priority services
    • In the last four years that I’ve presented a budget to you as Leader of this Council, I’ve proposed a massive £8.5 million total investment in new and priority services
    • You’ll hear from individual portfolio holders later about the investments we’re making this year

But this money makes a real difference:

  • Our budget will mean that our school children will have almost £300 extra per pupil spent on them to help their learning and development
    • It’ll mean that we’re able to start to refurbish Leyton Library to make it a state-of-the-art facility
    • It’ll mean that the garden and kitchen waste collection will be extended across the borough, increasing our residents’ impressive record of recycling
    • It means we’ll be opening a Waltham Forest Direct Shop in South Chingford
    • And it’ll mean that the most vulnerable kids and adults in our community carry on getting modern and proper care where they need it

But vitally, we’re not going to raise Council Tax by more that 2.5% to do it. Now, that’s meant some tough decisions - decisions which have prioritised local needs and local services

  • This year, we’ve made savings of £7.4 million

  • Since I’ve been Leader, this Council has agreed savings of over £24 million pounds

Some of these savings haven’t been easy. I’ve got no doubt that you’ll have read about some of them in the papers. But our residents expect us to deliver for their services and to deliver for their pockets, and that’s what we’ve got to do.

So all of the nonsense you’ve read in the papers about us wanting to close our museums is just that – nonsense.

But when our current opening hours don’t let the residents of this borough visit the museums that they are paying for on a Sunday, then we’d be irresponsible not to change things.

Opening museums during the week when our families are hard at work earning the cash which funds them, but then closing the doors at weekends when they are most likely to be able to enjoy them is simply crazy.

And when the current structure doesn’t let us do outreach work with our school children – the future custodians of these treasures – then of course we’re going to change things.

I for one am not going to shirk making these decisions. And there will be much tougher decisions to come in the next few years as our responsibilities increase and the pressures on our budgets multiply.

Both the Government and our residents have laid down a challenge to us: they both want us to deliver better services, to be responsible for a wider range of issues across the borough, and to do it in a more modern and efficient manner.

We can’t underestimate the importance of money to this Council and to the people we’re here to serve

We know that we are firmly on the road to improvement but we have to recognise the huge challenge that we have still to face before we achieve excellence

We need to use our resources far more effectively to enable us to work with our partners in the Police, the health service and the voluntary sector to really deliver change locally

So whilst our current financial arrangements have been crucial to our past successes, tonight I am pleased to announce that I am proposing that Ian O’Donnell, our Head of Strategic Finance, will become Director of Finance reporting directly to the Chief Executive in a stand alone section. This will give Ian and his team the power and flexibility to make sure that no stone is left unturned in this Council’s drive to deliver value for money for our residents

Look at excellent, four star authorities –  the Gatesheads, the Westminsters and the Suttons of the local authority world – they all have a structure where the Director of Finance reports directly to the Chief Executive. If we’re going to be as good as them then we need to learn from them. CIPFA – the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy – tell us that its good practice to have a Director of Finance who reports directly to the Chief Executive.

So if we’re a Council who aspires to be the best, we have to do what the best do and what the experts tell us is good practice

The Head of Strategic Finance has always played a crucial role in the improvement of this authority, and this move will help Ian and his team become even more strategic and able to support our drive to excellence

Whilst I’m confident that we’ve kept Council Tax to a minimum this year, we don’t ask for any increase lightly

The financial pressures that we’ll face in the coming years when all public services will be challenged to show efficiencies and broaden their service delivery means that we need to significantly step up our efforts to provide value for money

So I’m also announcing tonight that from April we will be embarking on a major roots and branch efficiency review of every aspect of our work

We need to squeeze every drop from every penny that we spend

We have to do this properly, and if we do it is likely to mean fundamental changes in the way we deliver services

What residents tell me is that their main concern is having high quality services which offer good value for money and are locally accountable

If that means that we need to take decisions about whether they are best provided by us, or delivered by a charity, or a even a neighbouring borough then as long as they are high performing and represent the best value for money locally then that’s what we need to be prepared to do

Its too easy to get wrapped up in numbers and spreadsheets and forget what this budget means to local people. At its heart is delivering better services.

We promised residents no more than a 2.5% increase in Council tax.

This budget sticks to that promise – and so will the next one and the next one. That’s one of the lowest increases in London, guaranteed, for the next 3 years.

Our residents are clear about what they want. They want us to deliver good services, at a price that they can afford.

This budget delivers on that.

Residents tell us that they want to make sure that we’re being canny with their money, but that we’re not making silly cuts to their priority services.

This budget also delivers on that.

We all know that we’ve got a lot of work to do to make sure our services are delivering the best value for money. But we’ve got the drive and the commitment to deliver on that too.

This is a sensible budget. It’s a budget that prioritises services, at the same time as prioritising our residents’ wallets, and its on this basis that I put it before you.