With a quarter of Conservative councillors now admitting their local authority is struggling to provide the basics, change is clearly needed, writes Christabel Cooper
Next week, voters across the country will be voting for local councils and mayors who decide many of the things close to us – including parks, social care and our roads. All of these things have been damaged by deep cuts made by successive Tory governments, but total wipeout of their councillors could be exaggerated.
A recent poll conducted by Savanta for Labour Together found one in four Conservative councillors admit cuts to local government budgets have left councils unable to adequately provide adult social care. A similar proportion say the same for other key local services like road maintenance. Having served as a councillor in West London for four years, I am not surprised.
Before I was elected to the council, I had little idea how precarious local government finances are. An early meeting with the borough’s director of finance changed that. Council funding is significantly topped up via a grant from the government, which varies year-on-year and has been slashed by more than 50 per cent since 2010.
Councils are obliged by law to provide statutory services such as child and adult social care, waste collection and road maintenance. Faced with swingeing cuts, many local authorities reduced spending in discretionary areas and tried to make efficiencies on the services they legally have to provide.
Meetings became debates between a play area in your local park, the fixing of potholes or the improvements to social housing. Against a background of an ageing population putting strain on adult social care costs, councils have had to work miracles to balance the books. There have been several high-profile council bankruptcies, but given the pressure local authorities are under, it is a wonder there have not been more.
Labour Together’s survey makes clear the deep central government cuts to council funding have now hit bone. If a quarter of Conservative councillors are now admitting their local authority is struggling to provide the basics, then things are clearly bad.
It is little wonder our polling found 65 per cent of Conservative councillors are dissatisfied with the national party. Many fear they will pay the price of Rishi Sunak’s ineptitude by losing their seats in the upcoming local elections. However, the number of these fearful Tory councillors who are set to lose their seats is a matter of debate.
Predictions of Tories losing half their councillors have been made by some. Yet this dramatic fall in support is based on a comparison with the elections in 2021, when the Conservatives were riding high as a result of the Covid vaccine roll-out. In fact due to the quirks of local politics, only a third of the seats were actually fought in either 2019, 2020, or 2023. As political historian Lewis Baston has pointed out: “A Tory ward that survived 2023 in particular is made of more resilient stuff than the high tide seats won in 2021.”
Meanwhile mayors such as Andy Street in the West Midlands and Ben Houchen in Tees Valley have a considerable level of personal support, as a result of being seen to deliver for their voters – and to have distanced themselves from the Tories. This is something Rishi Sunak could learn from, as he allows himself to be distracted by AI conferences and outdoor chess boards. This is particularly true of Houchen, who retained the Tees Valley mayoralty in 2021 with an extraordinary 73 per cent of the votes. This level of personal popularity may well be enough to overcome the swing against the Conservatives in national polling and allow these mayors to retain their posts.
Clearly, these elections are no done deal. But eventually the Conservative government will need to wake up to the consequences of letting down local government. Their own councillors are warning them. Yet politics isn’t always fair and the architects of these cuts may stay in Downing Street while their councillors lose their jobs overnight.